Star Magnolia

This is usually where I write about my inspiration for the design, or how I decided on the design name, or something along those lines. Sometimes this is a bit of a struggle, while other times words just flow out of me, through my hands on the keyboard, and onto the screen. This time? Oh ha ha ha. I first designed this shawl nearly four years ago for a club, and I truly have no memory of anything about coming up with the idea or choosing the design name. Nope. Nothing there at all. Perhaps I saw the lovely star shapes made with the cables and lace of this stitch, and so named it after one of my favorite flowers: the star magnolia. That works pretty well for me. I think I’ll stick with that reasoning. By the way, now that I was able to get my hands on this pattern again, I expanded it from the original one size that was available through the club to five sizes.

Knitting begins at the bottom edge by casting on the full width of the shawl. After the cable and lace motif is knit a slender cable rope is added across the top, worked as an applied border. When the cable rope is done, stitches are picked up along its edge, and garter stitch short rows are used to shape the crescent before binding off.

• Yarn: fingering weight; 450, 525 [625, 750, 825] yards
• Model: ColorPurl Ritzy Extra in Shamrock 600 yards in 150 grams; 80% merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon.
• Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm).
• Gauge: 17 sts and 33 rows to 4 inches in lace pattern, blocked.
• Finished size max depth x outer edge: inches: 10 x 50.75, 10.5 x 57.5 [11.25 x 67.25, 12 x 77.25, 12.5 x 83.75].
• Stitch instructions: Charted and written.