July is less than 2 weeks away, and I’m afraid I’ve been running a little later than usual on my annual Tour de France Knit Along (TdFKAL) preparation, but I’m close! The pattern has been edited. Two samples have been knit. Proper pictures are happening on Tuesday. Here’s a little preview of Echinacea:
It’s the floral border that gives the shawl its name. It reminds me of the drooping shape of Echinacea flowers.
This sample is the medium 3-section version knit in Colrain Lace from Valley Yarns – a heavy laceweight yarn, around 600 yds/100g. Echinacea can be knit in 2, 3 or 4 sections and in small, medium, or large sizes.
The pattern is available for pre-purchase now ($5 USD until the end of the TdF, then $7). Right now it only includes swatching information as well as yardage estimates. This should give you plenty of time to prepare for the Tour de France KAL if you want to swatch and get a good estimate of yarn usage. Consider it your training. The full pattern will go up on July 1st! The KAL is run out of my Ravelry group, so head on over there for prize info, rules, chat & more.
Echinacea is inspired by Chantilly Lace. The characteristics of Chantilly Lace that I felt were important to include are:
- a hexagonal lace background with more solid designs in the mesh
- an undulating border with a special design
- an eyelash edging
As always, I’ve been through the stash and come up with some delightful prizes for participants and spectators of this KAL:
I’ll explain the prize categories & detail the yarny goodness of these prizes later on this week, but it’s too pretty not to show you now!
