Westknits Painting Bricks Shawl Reveal

Westknits Are The Best Knits

I spotted this Westknits Painting Bricks Shawl on a few Instagram feeds at the beginning of April. I instantly loved the geometry of it and having knit a Stephen West shawl in the past, I knew it would be an enjoyable, fun knit. His patterns are brilliantly written and it’s not too difficult to find videos for the techniques used. I knew it would also be a great shawl to have as a sample at shows as it would be a real conversation starter. Do any of you love that moment you get to say, I knitted it myself?

At the back of my mind I was also thinking that I might have the chance to get my photo taken with Stephen again as he is due to attend the Glasgow School of Yarn in October. (Obviously we’ll have to wait and see how things progress on that event and I don’t have any official information on that yet.) The last picture of me wearing my Speckle and Pop Shawl is too funny not to share again!

Choosing Yarn Colours

In all honesty though, I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to dive into a big project as I was adapting to life with a husband working from home and three kids to home school, along side running the business. However, when I find myself in stressful situations, I always reach for my knitting and what could be better than a bright colourful rainbow to wrap yourself up in?

I had recently dyed up some 10 gram mini skeins that I had left over from last years Advent Calendar and I had stashed a couple of sets for me. Given the significance of rainbows in supporting our NHS, I decided to use these in this lockdown project and frame them with a dark grey yarn called ‘Granite’.

A quick check of the yarn requirements for the fingering weight shawl and I jumped right in. I am definitely a ‘wing it’ kind of knitter. I wasn’t 100% sure how far my mini’s would get me but I was willing to cast on and just make do with what I had. In the end I used 150g of Granite Grey and between 15 and 20g of each of the 10 rainbow colours (with a teeny bodge at the end that I’ll share later!)

The Pattern

Although the sheer scale of this project makes it look ambitious, it is a deceptively easy pattern to get into. It begins with a garter stitch tab and I refreshed my memory on this technique with this tutorial. One tip I would give anyone who want’s to give this a try would be to use lots of stitch markers. The metal ones from Coco Knits would be ideal as they don’t get in the way while you are knitting. Once these are set in place, it is honestly just knit, purl and slip stitches to deal with and making increases. The other thing I did was to colour code the pattern sections so I immediately knew where I was at.

I soon relaxed into the pattern and looked forward to picking it up each evening. A colour block here and there, the anticipation of how it will look next to the following colour and before I knew it the first colour repeat was complete. I tend to get bored easily and it doesn’t take much for me to be distracted, so I love projects where the combination of yarn colours work with a pattern and keep me interested.

It doesn’t take long before those rows start to become loooooooooong! Towards the end of the project I aimed for one row a night. It was something like 750 stitches by the time you reach the border!! By this point, I was beginning to play yarn chicken with my mini’s. I also opted to add a bit of ‘Granite’ mohair to the border sections to add a bit of interest and help weigh down the edges.

I completed the third purple section with about 20 metres of yarn to spare and the pattern should have stopped at this point. Arrghhh, would there be enough pink to finish??!!! Could I face having to take back 4 x 750 stitches if I didn’t, and most important, could I just leave it without the final rainbow sequence being complete? It was close, very close and I could have cried when I got to about 40 stitches from the end and ran out ;-(

But failing at yarn chicken doesn’t bother a knitter with a carefully curated stash. I delved deep into those boxes and found some sparkly pink yarn that I had used for some heels and toes and as it’s so close to the edge, who’s gonna notice, eh?!!

Knitting is my Yoga

At times, this knit was a slog (especially with all of those ends to weave in), but some friends were knitting it too at the same time and it definitely helped keep me going as we chatted about various parts of the pattern and sent pics of where we were up to.

I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that I’ve found the last few months tough. It’s been an emotional roller coaster in our house and I felt guilt that really we had nothing to complain about in comparison with what others were facing. I’ve always been an over-thinker and my anxiety can flare it’s head every now and again. I find that my knitting is like my reset. I can switch off that busy brain and concentrate on what I’m knitting and give my head a rest. I guess it’s my yoga! My five minutes peace in the day (ok, at least 30 mins) when I can switch off, relax and play with colour and yarn. The fact that we are now (hopefully) out the other side now, I’m glad I completed this shawl during lockdown as a momento of what we’ve all been through.

Alternative Colour Combos

I’ve seen this shawl in some beautiful yarn combinations and I thought I’d share some of my favourites here.

The first one was knitted by my friend Alison with some Cookston Crafts yarns. Alison used a colour called Frosted Ice as her background and 4 x 50g sparkly skeins in pastel colours and the effect is stunning and she even had enough left over for some matchy socks! It has a totally different look, don’t you think?

I also came across this striking shawl on Ravelry by Deb at Crafty Rabbit Hole. I particularly loved how the colours pop but also that it had been knitted with acrylic yarn from her stash. I know it’s not for everyone but I truly believe that not all yarn has to be expensive hand dyed merino yarn. Let’s face it we all have little bits of yarn left over from other projects and it’s a great way to use them up. I get the same pleasure from knitting and crocheting with colourful acrylic and I also don’t have to be as careful with it whether it’s a blanket that the kids are playing with or a sweater that my husband might thrown in the wash with boiler suits.

The final picture is another option I put together using Neon Peony as the background colour and then a grey fade for the colour blocks. I think that would look so cool!

Not a Shawl Person?

So if you’re reading this thinking, that is too big a project or a shawl just isn’t for you then I’d recommend looking up Stephen West’s Sweater and Hat in the same pattern. They’d be a great way to use up odds and ends from those yarn stashes and might just give you that down time your head needs right now…..