Bramble Berry Shawl

Bramble Berry Shawl by Maggie Schott

What is Being Made

The Bramble Berry Shawl is a knitted shawl design created by independent designer Maggie Schott. This downloadable PDF pattern produces a finished shawl suitable for wearing, constructed using fingering weight yarn in a multi-color construction.

Yarn and Materials

This shawl pattern calls for fingering weight yarn (also known as #1 weight), which is a fine yarn ideal for creating delicate, detailed knitwear. The pattern specifies KnitPicks Hawthorne Hand Painted yarns in three coordinating colorways:

• Color A: Hawthorne Hand Painted Speckle in Jupiter
• Color B: Hawthorne Tonal Hand Painted in Arleta
• Color C: Hawthorne Tonal Hand Painted in Burlingame

The total yardage required is 1,071 yards (3 skeins at 357 yards per skein). Knitters will need a US Size 1/2.25mm circular needle in quite a long length to accommodate the expanding size of the finished shawl, along with optional stitch markers and a darning needle for finishing.

Knitting Techniques and Stitches

The Bramble Berry Shawl employs several fundamental knitting techniques to create its structure and visual interest. The pattern uses yarn overs (YO) as a primary shaping and decorative element, which create the characteristic open holes and lace-like qualities typical of shawl designs. These yarn overs are worked in specific sequences, such as the [K1, YO, K1] stitch pattern, where knitters complete three steps within a single yarn over from the previous row, working through the back of stitches to maintain the integrity and size of the decorative holes.

The core stitches employed in this pattern include:

• Knit (K): The fundamental knit stitch
• Purl (P): The reverse of the knit stitch, used for texture variation
• Yarn Over (YO): Creating deliberate holes and lace effects
• Knit Two Together (K2Tog): A right-leaning decrease
• Purl Two Together (P2Tog): A decrease worked in purl

Additional techniques include cast on (CO) to begin the shawl, bind off (BO) to secure the final edge, and the use of stitch markers (SM) and place marker (PM) instructions to help track pattern repeats and shaping sections as the shawl expands.

Pattern Structure

The pattern is presented as a downloadable PDF document and includes comprehensive pattern notes to guide knitters through construction. A video tutorial is referenced within the pattern, providing visual instruction for techniques that may be unfamiliar to knitters. The circular needle length requirement indicates this is a top-down or center-out construction that grows significantly in size, which is typical of modern shawl design where the working stitches expand as additional rows are completed.