Introducing Phobos

Each year, we host a club with 4 shipments of yarn with 4 knitwear patterns designed and created by Ysolda. This time last year, our club members would have been working on the Phobos shawl. The patterns are exclusive to the club for 12 months, which means we've just released Phobos as an individual pattern for everyone to enjoy. Sad you missed out on the club yarn? Scroll down!

Phobos is a geometric, modularly worked wrap that makes the most of humble stitches. Phobos begins with a square worked in the round from the centre out, using a nifty cast-on method. This square is turned 45 degrees and a triangle is worked from each of two of the sides to square off one end of the wrap.

Ysolda knit these mini versions while working out the modular construction of the design

The stitches from the other two sides are then returned to the needles and a long, chevron patterned section is worked to form the main body of the wrap. A small triangle is worked separately to form the other end and the two points are connected with a triangle on either side. It all sounds rather confusing but it comes together easily with a minimum of picking up stitches and fussy acrobatics. The long sides are edged with I-cord that’s worked at the same time as the other pieces and the short ends are finished with a simple garter stitch border.

Here's the schematic from the pattern to help guide you through the construction:

We love what our previous club members had to say of their experience making Phobos:

nicki.norris said: I made this for the shawl club and it was so much fun! The construction and textural changes kept it interesting, and the end result is so wearable. I added eyelet rows which I’m proud of cos it emphasises the interesting construction.

farlizagain: I love this scarf. I wasn't sure it was long enough when I made it, but it's been my constant companion this winter. The yarn is so beautiful.

On Ravelry, these FO pictures caught our eye:

Melliemouse's Phobos 

Spirou's Phobos, isn't the label a cute addition? 

LoulouGingadded fringe instead of the garter stitch borders. This was a way of solving a problem — gauge issues meant that the garter stitch wouldn't lie flat, but we love how the fringe looks!

We also had to smile at club member Chris Ninox who also enjoyed the play of light and shadow on the simple but striking lines on this shawl during blocking. If you’re thinking about getting a nice, crisp block on this shawl, we’d recommend our shawl blocking blog post from our Technique Thursday series.

You can download the pattern today to get working on your own and might be interested to learn we have a little stock of the original yarn left on the site. It’s there until it sells out and then we’ll be bringing a batch of the only remaining skeins to Edinburgh Yarn Festival this year. Spun for us by John Arbon, Diemos was a limited edition 80% Corriedale and 20% Zwartbles wool, lace weight yarn and will appeal to anyone who enjoyed Blend no.1. Each 150 gram skein has 820 yards (750 meters). 

Knitting the shawl? Don’t forget to add the hashtag #phobosshawl so everyone can see your project either in Ravelry or Instagram.