Have you heard about Wingspan by Tri’Coterie? It’s a trending knitting pattern on Ravelry recently… and I’m seeing it pop up everywhere!

I just finished knitting my first one and I’ve cast on for a second. It’s no wonder it’s a popular pattern… Wingspan is both fun and easy, and it’s a great yarn for showing off long color-repeats.

In this post, I’ll share a couple of tips I’ve learned… so you can get started on one for yourself. (trust me, you want to!)

Choosing a Yarn

This pattern is fabulous because it gives you the option of making a fingering, dk or worsted weight scarf… meaning you have lots of yarns available to choose from!

My personal favorite is to select a self-striping or gradient yarn. Yarns with long colorways will give you a shawl where each wedge is a different color (more or less), resulting in a gradient-effect across the entire piece.

Some yarns with long colorways are:

• Almost any Noro yarn: try Taiyo or Silk Garden Sock for fingering weight or Taiyo, Kureyon or Silk Garden for a worsted weight.
• Zauberball (Fingering)
• Knit Picks Chroma (available in fingering or worsted weight)
• Play at Life Maki Yarn (available in a wide range of fingering weight options)

I’ve also seen some lovely versions on Ravelry knitted up with yarns with shorter colorways, or even in a solid color. Doing this makes the ‘wedges’ in the shawl less defined, but still results in a beautiful shawl. Check out all of the projects and see what strikes you!

How to skip using a traveling marker

I like to knit on the go… and so adding and removing a traveling stitch marker every row was too much for me. Fortunately, you can easily go without using one.

To accomplish the patterning for Wingspan, you basically want to turn 3 stitches before the last time you turned on the previous row. Fortunately (since the pattern recommends not wrapping before turning), you’ll see a giant gap in your work where you previously turned (the red arrow).

So, all you need to do for your current row is turn 3 stitches before that gap (at the blue arrow), and bye-bye traveling stitch marker!

I recommend knitting one wedge by following the pattern before attempting working without the traveling stitch marker. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll only to add one marker every time you finish a wedge… much easier to manage!

The Cast-On

For this pattern, you’ll need to cast on stitches to the end of a piece you’re already working. Since there are already stitches in action (with yarn attached), your cast-on choices become more limited (for example, using the long-tail cast-on would require a second piece of yarn).

For this part, I use the Cable Cast on. It’s a simple way of adding stitches to a piece you already have. Check out KnittingHelp.com or consult a reference guide (like The Knitting Answer Book) to find out how to do it.

Have you started yours, yet?

It’s a fun, easy and portable pattern. I’ve just cast on for my second… a fingering weight version where I’m using up all of my leftover sock yarn pieces to create a rainbow effect. I’ll keep you posted on my progress!

Best,
Stacey