Wiske in Rowan Moordale - ZB297-00012-UK - Downloadable PDF

Wiske Wrap in Rowan Moordale – A Martin Storey Knitting Pattern (ZB297-00012-UK)

The Wiske is a beautifully elongated knitted wrap designed by Martin Storey for Rowan. Published in 2021, this intermediate-level knitting pattern produces a generously sized, textured two-colour wrap that combines classic ribbing with a charted slip-stitch pattern to create a fabric with subtle visual depth and excellent drape. The finished wrap measures 52.5 cm (20¾ in) wide and a sweeping 208.5 cm (82 in) long, making it a versatile and luxurious accessory for layering across the shoulders or wrapping around the neck.

What Is Being Made

The Wiske pattern produces a single rectangular wrap — a long, flat panel of knitted fabric worked from one short end to the other. Its generous length and width make it suitable as a shawl, scarf, or wrap. The design is structured with neat ribbed borders at each end and a richly textured slip-stitch colourwork panel running the length of the body, giving the piece a refined, artisan quality that works equally well in casual and smart settings.

Design and Colourways

The pattern is written for Rowan Moordale yarn and features two colourways:

• Main colourway: Yarn A – Turmeric 003 and Yarn B – Pewter 012
• Alternative colourway: Yarn A – Pillar Box 020 and Yarn B – French Navy 016

Both colourways pair a warm or bold accent colour with a deeper, more neutral tone, allowing the slip-stitch texture to read clearly across the fabric. The two-colour construction is handled in a straightforward manner — only one yarn is ever actively knitted at a time, with the second colour introduced for the charted section and then set aside for the ribbed borders.

Yarn and Materials

The pattern calls for Rowan Moordale, a DK weight yarn, worked on 4mm (US 6) needles. The yarn quantities required are:

• Yarn A: 4 x 100g balls
• Yarn B: 3 x 100g balls

A single pair of 4mm (no 8) needles is all that is required for this project, making it an accessible make in terms of equipment. The tension for this pattern is 25 stitches and 39 rows to 10 cm measured over the charted pattern using 4mm needles, so achieving an accurate tension swatch before casting on is recommended, particularly given the length of the finished piece.

Techniques Used

The Wiske wrap draws on a small but effective set of knitting techniques that combine to produce a polished result:

• Two-colour knitting: Yarn A and Yarn B are used across the body of the wrap. The colourwork is achieved not through stranded or intarsia methods but through a slip-stitch technique, meaning only one yarn is ever in use on any given row. This makes the pattern approachable for knitters who are new to working with multiple colours.
• Slip-stitch colourwork: A key technique throughout the main body of the wrap. Stitches are slipped purlwise with the yarn held at the wrong side of the work — specifically, at the back on right-side rows and at the front on wrong-side rows. This creates a woven or mosaic-like texture without the complexity of carrying floats across the back of the work.
• Ribbing: Both the cast-on and cast-off edges are worked in a 2x2 rib pattern (K2, P2 repeat), providing neat, slightly elastic borders that frame the wrap cleanly at each end.
• Chart reading: The central patterned section is worked from a 32-stitch repeat chart, which is repeated four times across each row. The chart uses a combination of knit stitches in Yarn A, knit stitches in Yarn B, and slip stitches to build the pattern. Chart rows 1 and 2 are worked once at the beginning