934 Aronia - Shawl Knitting Pattern for Women in Valley Yarns Hatfield

Pattern 934 Aronia – Two-Color Crescent Shawl Knitting Pattern by Julie Turjoman

The 934 Aronia is a beautifully designed two-color crescent shawl pattern created by Julie Turjoman and published under the Valley Yarns brand. Worked in the exquisitely soft Valley Yarns Hatfield, a 100% Baby Alpaca yarn, this shawl delivers a luxurious drape and a refined finished look that makes it a standout accessory for women. The pattern is available as a downloadable PDF and is rated at an intermediate skill level, making it an excellent choice for knitters who are comfortable with basic shaping and are ready to explore two-color stranded colorwork.

What Is Being Made

The finished project is a crescent-shaped shawl, a popular and elegant silhouette in the shawls and wraps category. When fully blocked, the shawl measures approximately 51 inches wide by 23 inches deep at the center, providing generous coverage across the shoulders and back. The crescent shape is achieved through strategic increases that curve the fabric into its characteristic arc, making it both flattering to wear and visually striking.

Construction and Techniques

The Aronia shawl uses a combination of techniques that give it both structure and visual interest:

• Garter tab cast-on: The shawl begins with a classic garter tab, a neat and tidy starting method that creates a small horizontal strip of garter stitch from which stitches are picked up to begin the main body. This technique produces a clean, professional edge at the top center of the shawl.
• Top-down construction: The shawl is worked from the top down, allowing knitters to try it on as they go and adjust length if desired.
• Worked flat: Despite being knitted on a circular needle, the shawl is worked flat, meaning it is knitted back and forth in rows rather than in the round. The long circular needle accommodates the growing stitch count comfortably.
• Seamless construction: There are no seams to sew up at the end, keeping finishing simple and the fabric uninterrupted.
• Stranded colorwork: The border of the shawl features stranded two-color colorwork, a technique in which both the main color (MC) and contrast color (CC) are carried across the row simultaneously, with one color being knitted and the other floated behind the work. This creates a dense, patterned fabric with a traditional Fair Isle-inspired aesthetic.
• Contrast color garter stripes: Beyond the stranded border, the body of the shawl features simple contrast color garter stripes set against a stockinette stitch background. This combination keeps the knitting engaging without being overly complex, making it approachable for intermediate knitters who want colorwork experience without an all-over stranded pattern.

Stitches Used

• Stockinette stitch – the primary stitch pattern for the body of the shawl, created by knitting on right-side rows and purling on wrong-side rows when working flat
• Garter stitch – used for the tab cast-on and for the contrast color stripe sections, created by knitting every row
• kfb (knit front and back) – the increase stitch used to shape the crescent, worked at regular intervals on increase rows to build the characteristic curved silhouette
• Stranded colorwork stitches – worked in the border section using both MC and CC simultaneously

Yarn and Materials

The pattern calls for just two skeins of Valley Yarns Hatfield, a lace weight yarn made from 100% Baby Alpaca. Each skein contains 437 yards and weighs 50 grams, providing an impressive yardage that makes this a very efficient project. The two colorways specified in the pattern are:

• MC: Valley Yarns Hatfield in #c970 Lilac Snow – one skein used for the main body
• CC: Valley Yarns Hatfield in #c843 Cranberry – one skein used for the