Killer Queen Shawl

by Kimber Baldwin February 03, 2024

"She keeps Moet and Chandon in a pretty cabinet..."

-Queen

Let me begin by saying straight off that this may be my most-est favorite shawl that I've ever made! On New Year's Day a few weeks ago I cast on the Killer Queen Shawl designed by Mary Annarella of Lyrical Knits. I love knitting slip stitch patterns and I had seen this shawl while visiting another local yarn shop, Wooly Bully Yarn Company up in Springboro, Ohio. You would think owning a yarn shop would keep me from wandering astray into other yarn shops, but I'm just as much a yarn junkie as the next knitter or crocheter and this beautiful yarn shop always has a lovely selection of knitting books...so yarn AND books...really, need I say more? And to top it all off, the people who work there are always super super nice! When I mentioned that I needed a new shawl project, Marsha pulled out all the stops to make it happen for me, pulling out one model after another!! Really, if you like anywhere near Springboro, you should pay them a visit. Did I mention that it is in the super cute Quaker town that played a pivotal role in the underground railroad? Definitely a must stop sort of place, all round.

Anyhow, one of the shawls they showed me, which I fell in love with, was the 'Killer Queen Shawl'. The pattern calls for 635 yards for the main color and 470 yards for the contrast color of a DK or a light worsted yarn. However, I'm not a fan of heavy blanket-like shawls. Furthermore, slip stitch fabrics, like this one, tend to be even thicker because of the yarn floats on the wrong side. So, I decided to knit my shawl in fingering weight yarn. I've done this for so many worsted/DK/sport weight shawl designs and have always been super happy with the results. Since fingering weight yarn is thinner than the DK weight yarn called for in the pattern, you will likely want to drop down 2 needle sizes to create a thinner fabric with similar drape and fabric integrity. With thinner yarn and smaller needles, it probably comes as no surprise that your stitches will probably be smaller (this is not always this case, but it's a good bet). This is, again, easy to adjust for by simply knitting a couple - few additional sections until the shawl is a size that you like.

I knit my 'Killer Queen Shawl' using (2) skeins of 'Blaze' on Kashmir MCN (420 yards per skein) for the main color:

and (1) skein of the 'Glacier' gradient on Kashmir MCN (470 yards per skein) for the contrast color:

The shawl design features three different slip stitch patterns: tiny bubbles, bigger bubbles, and champagne flutes.

The slip stitch sections repeat with the larger sections of Bigger Bubbles and Champagne Flutes sections alternating and the smaller section,Tiny Bubbles, occurring between every larger stitch section. There is nothing that demands that you continue the design in this manner, but, in any case, you probably will want to put a couple three extra sections in your shawl since the design, as written, is for larger size stitches and, if knit out of fingering weight yarn on smaller needles, it will be quite small. For my shawl, I opted to continue adding sections, in sequence as written in the pattern, until I ran out of the gradient color (contrast color). I had plenty of the main color left (I will use it as some accent color in another project). In knitting until I ran out of the contrast yarn, I was able to knit an extra section each of small bubbles and champagne flutes.

The final shawl dimensions were:

Increase Edge - 68"

Bind Off Edge - 79"

Short Edge - 42"

These measurements are similar to those dimensions reported in the pattern. I didn't measure gauge before knitting this because I planned on knitting until I ran out of the contrast yarn and I have knit several DK weight shawls as fingering weight alterations and felt pretty confident that I would be happy with the results. Just for grins and giggles, I measured the gauge after blocking and it looks to be surprisingly close to 18 sts/4 inches --- dead on for what the pattern gauge specified for DK weight yarn. Go figure! If you knit to a tighter gauge than I did, your shawl will likely include additional sections. If you knit to a looser gauge than me, you may run out a little earlier. Either way, your shawl will be perfect! If you find yourself in the middle of a section without having enough yarn to finish it, it is easy enough to purchase one or two 30 yard mini skeins in the terminal color, which should be enough to complete your shawl.