Addiction

Addiction Shawl by Threebagsfulled

What is Being Made

Addiction is an advanced knitted shawl pattern designed for experienced knitters seeking a complex, engaging project. This downloadable PDF pattern is the final installment in the Obsessive Knitting Disorders shawl collection, created by designer Hilary Designs and published in 2014. The shawl is constructed using a clue-based pattern system that requires careful attention to instructions before working each section, making it ideal for knitters who enjoy intricate, multi-step designs.

Techniques Used

This advanced shawl employs several sophisticated knitting techniques that distinguish it as a project for experienced crafters. The pattern introduces the Umbilical Cord Cast On (also called the Belly Button Cast On) as the foundation method, though knitters are welcome to substitute their preferred cast-on technique. The construction progresses through multiple clues, each building upon previous sections with specific instructions that must be followed sequentially. The clue-based structure encourages knitters to read ahead and understand the full scope of each section before beginning, preventing mistakes and ensuring proper stitch placement throughout the garment.

Stitches Used

The pattern utilizes fundamental knitting stitches combined in strategic ways to create the shawl's structure. Core stitches include:

• Knit (K) – basic knit stitch
• Purl (P) – basic purl stitch
• Yarn Over (yo) – creates decorative eyelets and increases
• Knit Through Back Loop (K1tbl) – twisted stitches for textural variation
• Knit Two Together (K2tog) – decreases for shaping

These stitches are combined within the clue-based pattern structure to create the shawl's final form. Stitch markers are used throughout to track pattern repeats and section boundaries.

Materials and Tools

The Addiction shawl requires fingering weight yarn totaling a minimum of 960 yards. The pattern was originally designed for Wolle's Color Changing Cotton, which uses two matching 100-gram skeins plus one 50-gram skein of a coordinating end color for safety. Alternatively, knitters may substitute any solid, tonal, or slow-changing color fingering weight yarn of equivalent yardage.

Needles required include Size 7 circular needles in two lengths: 24-inch and 40-inch circulars with pointy tips for precise stitch work. Additionally, knitters will need either a set of double-pointed needles (dpn's) or short circular needles for the cast-on and the first approximately 25 rows, before transitioning to the longer circular needles as the shawl expands.