519 Tide Pool Stole - Shawl Knitting Pattern for Women in Valley Yarns 2/14 Alpaca Silk Hand-Dyed

519 Tide Pool Stole – Lace Knitting Pattern for Women by Kirsten Hipsky

The 519 Tide Pool Stole is a beautifully elegant knitted stole designed by Kirsten Hipsky and published by Valley Yarns. This versatile accessory finishes at approximately 18 inches wide by 70 inches long after blocking, making it generously sized to wear either as a flowing shawl draped over the shoulders or wrapped as a sophisticated scarf. The design is classified as a beginner-level project, making it an ideal introduction to lace knitting for newer knitters while remaining a satisfying and meditative knit for more experienced crafters.

What Is Being Made

The Tide Pool Stole is a long, rectangular lace stole — sometimes called a rectangular shawl or wrap. Its straight, classic shape is one of the most wearable and timeless formats in handknitting. Unlike triangular or crescent-shaped shawls, a stole of this proportion can be folded, draped, or wrapped in multiple ways, giving the finished piece exceptional versatility as a wardrobe accessory. The name evokes the organic, flowing textures of coastal tide pools, a feeling that is beautifully reinforced by the hand-dyed colorway and the rhythmic lace stitch pattern.

Techniques Used

• Lace knitting: The body of the stole features a classic lace repeat worked across right-side rows, creating an open, airy fabric with decorative eyelets and elegant directional decreases.
• Worked flat: The stole is knitted flat, back and forth in rows on straight or circular needles, rather than in the round. Garter stitch edges are maintained throughout to keep the fabric from curling and to frame the lace panel neatly.
• Seamless construction: Because the piece is worked flat from cast-on to bind-off in a single continuous rectangle, there is no seaming required at any stage of finishing.
• Blocking: Wet blocking is an essential finishing step for this pattern. The finished stole is pinned out to the target measurements — with the outer lace points carefully pinned at both the cast-on and bind-off edges — allowing the lace to open up fully and the fabric to relax to its final dimensions.

Stitch Pattern: Feather and Fan

The primary stitch pattern used in the Tide Pool Stole is a simple and traditional adaptation of Feather and Fan, one of the most beloved and recognizable lace patterns in the knitting tradition. Feather and Fan — also known historically as Old Shale — creates a gently undulating, wave-like texture through a structured sequence of yarn overs and paired decreases. In this pattern, the 12-row repeat consists of four rows of garter stitch (all knit) followed by four pairs of rows alternating the lace pattern row with a purl-back wrong-side row, all framed by a single selvedge stitch on each edge.

The lace rows use the following sequence across a 13-stitch repeat: k2tog, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, yo, ssk, ssk, k1. This creates the characteristic fan-like spread of yarn overs flanked by symmetrical double decreases, producing the flowing, feathery scallop that gives the stitch its name. The pattern notes that this traditional stitch works beautifully with the hand-dyed colorways of the specified yarn, as the gentle repeating structure allows the tonal color variations to pool and flow in an organic, painterly way.

Stitches Used

• Knit (k) – used throughout for garter stitch sections and selvedge edges
• Purl (p) – used on wrong-side rows within the lace repeat to create a stockinette ground for the lace
• Yarn over (yo) – creates the decorative eyelets and increases that form the open lace fabric
• Knit two together (k2tog) – a right-leaning decrease used in pairs within the Feather and Fan repeat
• Slip, slip, knit (ssk) – a left-leaning decrease worked by slipping two stitches as if to knit, then knitting them together through the back loop, used in pairs to mirror the k2tog decreases

Materials: Yarn