Striped Diagonal Knitted Shawl with Gradually Shaded Hues

Several years ago I sold an asymetrical three color solid and striped shawl at a holiday fair.  My customer looked so stylish in the garment, and after some negotiating, she walked away with a beautiful piece at a bargain price.  The pattern was a purchased design from the Plymouth Yarn Company that was 46 inches long and 20 inches deep. (Homestead Tweed:  Striped Diagonal Shawl) it was simple to create since the entire piece ws knitted in the garter stitch. I really admired my piece, but the length was too small for me.  

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Several years and many projects later, I rediscovered the pattern and decided to make a shawl that I could use to accessorize light weight jackets and sweaters.  I ended up with a piece that was 65 inches long that could easily be draped, tucked and closed with a shawl pin.  In order to accommodate the extra length, I had to include a total of  6 shades of white to dark gray tones that grew into 11 sections of solid  and striped areas.

In some ways I stayed true to the pattern.  I started with a solid pice for 36 rows with increases in row 1 of a two row pattern sequence.  In the second row I slipped stitch purl wise and knitted to †he end of the row.  At the beginning of the new 36 row section, I introduced a new very light grey in 2 row stripes.  There was much more contrast in the original pattern.  

​However, I chose to extend the color selection by introducing gradually darker hues as I moved up the shawl.  Each solid space of 36 lines was followed by a striped section that introduced a new color.  Then the new color was knit for 36 solid lines 

This was a real stash buster as I dove into my bins for as many tones of grey that I could find.
I did not want to include a black stripe, and I was pleased that I could finish my shawl with the darkest of greys.

The shawl was easy to execute, but I ran into an unexpected problem from time to time as I seemed to have a tendency to drop stitches.  While it is easy to pick up stock and net dropped stitches, garter stitches change each row as the knitted row is purl on the back.  Alas,  I found myself frogging a few lines from time.  After the second time,  I resolved to examine each line before I went onto the next.  While it took extra time the short term,  I saved myself a great deal of aggravation.

Since knitting my assymetrical shawl, I have come across several different asymmetrical free patterns online. I am quite proud of my shawl, but I have been sorely tempted try a version with two contrasting self striping yarns,.  Since, I do not have that yarn in my stash, I would be undermining my resolution to use up the yarn I have on hand.  Yet, I do have a large skein of about 600 yards of black yarn that I could contrast with smaller part skeins that I could match up.  

Since my last article, I have created two girl's sweaters from yarn scraps and several pairs of girls' and women's mittens.  My hands seem to itch to be busy.  Thank you for joining me on my stitching journey.  I appreciate your reflections and feedback.