Babs, Ivy, and I had a lot of fun knitting up our Artus shawls in sport weight Laurel Falls this summer.
We've gathered up some tips and tricks for knitting your own Artus!
When choosing colors, almost anything goes. Veronica and Ivy chose some high-contrast color combinations to make their diamonds stand out, but Babs chose mostly bright colors and jewel tones for her shawl and it's a stunner. Just keep in mind that every color will at some point touch all four other colors.
For the waffle pattern at the beginning, always remember to keep your yarn to the wrong side of the work while slipping your stitches. This ensures the vertical columns of slipped stitches will stand out on the front.
For the stranded colorwork bands, make sure your knitting is relatively loose and stretchy.
The same goes for the mosaic colorwork - make sure your knitting is spread out on the right needle when you're slipping stitches, to ensure the yarn isn't too tight across the back. Those loose strands will help your shawl block out nice and flat.
The mosaic charts may seem a little confusing at first, but keep in mind that each row is worked twice (right side and wrong side), and double-check your pattern for the mosaic knitting notes on page 7 (after the charts).
For the i-cord bind-off, you can also work it by slipping the i-cord stitches back to the left needle rather than sliding them through double-pointed needles. Be patient; this takes a little while, but it's worth it. I tried modifying the bind-off to another style and wasn't successful.
Last but not least... as always, blocking is yarn magic. While your shawl is wet, you can stretch it out to make the stitches more regular, and even adjust the overall shape of the garment.
We hope you had fun knitting along on Artus!