Nemeton

Nemeton Shawl by Justyna Lorkowska

What Is Being Made

Nemeton is a knitted shawl designed to celebrate ancient Celtic sacred spaces through its visual texture and construction. The piece features ripples of cables that create a subtle yet striking textured surface, making it an ideal project for knitters seeking to combine simplicity of construction with sophisticated visual impact. The shawl's design philosophy emphasizes choosing yarn colors that will showcase the cable texture to its fullest advantage.

Knitting Techniques

This intermediate-level shawl employs a straightforward construction method that begins with a garter edge section before transitioning into the main cable work. The combination of garter stitch foundation and cable patterning creates visual interest while remaining accessible to knitters with intermediate experience. The cable sections form the signature rippling effect that defines the Nemeton design.

Stitches Used

The shawl incorporates several cable techniques to achieve its textured appearance:

• T3F (Twist 3 Front): Place the next 2 stitches onto a cable needle, hold at front of work, purl 1, then knit 2 from the cable needle
• T3B (Twist 3 Back): Place the next stitch onto a cable needle, hold at back of work, knit 2, then purl 1 from the cable needle
• C2F (Cable 2 Front): Place the next stitch onto a cable needle, hold at front of work, knit 1 from the left needle, then knit 1 from the cable needle
• C3B (Cable 3 Back): Place the next 2 stitches onto a cable needle, hold at back of work, then work as directed in the pattern
• Garter Stitch: Used for the foundational edge section

Materials and Specifications

The Nemeton shawl is designed for fingering weight yarn. The sample shown uses Triskelion Yarn & Fibre Elen Sock, which is composed of 100% BFL wool. The project requires approximately 854 yards (780 meters) of fingering weight yarn, equivalent to 2 skeins of Elen Sock at 427 yards per 110-gram skein. Knitting needles required are US 4 (3.5 mm) in a 32-inch / 80-centimeter length, suitable for working the shawl's width.

Design Summary

Nemeton represents a thoughtful balance between ease of execution and visual sophistication. The garter stitch introduction provides a gentle warm-up before moving into cable work, while the cable stitches themselves—though requiring attention to stitch placement—follow logical, repeatable patterns. The fingering weight yarn combined with the cable texture creates definition that transforms a relatively simple knitting project into a richly textured finished piece worthy of display.