Phoenix Shawl in Rowan Felted Tweed Colour (DE) - Downloadable PDF

Phoenix Shawl in Rowan Felted Tweed Colour by Lisa Richardson – Knitting Pattern Summary

What You Are Making

The Phoenix Shawl is a beautifully shaped, colourwork knitted shawl designed by Lisa Richardson and published by Rowan. When finished, the shawl measures approximately 170 cm along its straight edge and 47 cm at its widest point, making it a generously sized accessory suitable for draping, wrapping, or wearing as a statement piece. The design is available as a downloadable PDF (pattern reference ZB312-00009-DE) and is rated as intermediate in difficulty, making it an ideal project for knitters who are comfortable with colourwork and shaping techniques but are looking to develop their skills further.

Design and Construction Overview

The Phoenix Shawl is worked from a single cast-on stitch, gradually increasing to build the body of the shawl before decreasing to a neat finish. This construction method creates an asymmetric or triangular shawl shape that grows organically from one point. The shaping is carefully managed so that increases and decreases occur only at the beginning of right-side rows, within a border of garter stitch, while the opposite edge remains straight. This gives the shawl its distinctive silhouette.

The centre section of the shawl is worked in a colourwork chart, with the pattern repeat consisting of 6 stitches and 36 rows, with rows 11–46 repeated continuously. Three stitches on each side of the shawl are worked in garter stitch throughout using Colour A (Chestnut 024), framing the colourwork panel neatly and providing a tidy, stable edge.

Techniques Used

• Stranded colourwork (Norwegertechnik / Fair Isle technique): The main body of the shawl is worked in the Norwegian stranded colourwork method, knitting with multiple colours across a row and carrying the unused yarn behind the work. This creates a dense, structured fabric with a beautiful multi-coloured pattern.
• Increases (M1 – Make 1): Stitches are added by lifting the horizontal bar between stitches and knitting into it, placing increases at charted positions on right-side rows only.
• Decreases (k2tog – knit 2 together): Stitches are reduced by knitting two stitches together, again worked at the beginning of right-side rows within the garter stitch border section.
• Garter stitch borders: Three stitches on each side are worked in garter stitch (knit every row) in Colour A throughout the entire shawl, providing structure and a clean edge finish.
• Provisional or simple cast-on from a single stitch: The shawl begins with just one cast-on stitch, which is doubled and gradually increased in the opening rows to establish the foundation of the shawl shape.
• Steaming and blocking (Dämpfen): The finished shawl is finished by steaming, as directed on the Rowan information page, to open up the stitches, even out the colourwork, and achieve the stated finished dimensions.

Stitches Used

• Stocking stitch (glatt rechts): The colourwork sections are worked in stocking stitch — knit on right-side rows, purl on wrong-side rows — which provides a smooth, flat surface that showcases the stranded colour pattern clearly.
• Garter stitch (kraus rechts): Used for the three-stitch side borders throughout the shawl and for the final decrease section, which is worked entirely in garter stitch in Colour A until one stitch remains.
• M1 increase stitch: A lifted bar increase used at specific charted positions to shape the shawl.
• K2tog decrease stitch: A right-leaning decrease used to reduce stitch count during the shaping and final sections.

Materials – Yarn

The pattern uses Rowan Felted Tweed Colour, a DK weight yarn sold in 50g balls. Three colours are specified:

• Colour A –