Early Bloom Shawl

The first sign of a bud opening always thrills with the promise of something beautiful. Patterned with delicate little blossoms, our free Early Bloom Shawl knitting pattern taps into that promise and is the perfect way to celebrate three new colors of Santolina, a summertime yarn that is as soft as a petal!

Sweet, textural blooms cover the fabric like wildflowers dotting a prairie, and all it takes to knit them is a simple technique where you knit into a stitch a couple of rows below. We’ve included detailed step-by-step photos right in the pattern to guide you through it! You’ll find yourself looking forward to the Dandelion Flower Stitch rows with the same excitement as watching a blossom open to the sun.

To make the Early Bloom Shawl, you’ll knit a deep triangle, either a big, shawl-size one or a smaller one for a scarf. For the shawl version, you’ll add a yarn tassel at each point to help it stay stylishly in place on your shoulders… Beautiful and functional!

Lovely Santolina is spun from a wonderfully wild blend of soft organic cotton, silky bamboo, and rustic hemp, making this yarn vegan-friendly, hypoallergenic, and machine wash- and dry-able, too. This fingering-weight yarn has the elegant drape you expect from plant fibers, with a surprisingly airy feel thanks to its relatively loose two-ply spin. You’ll love Santolina’s velvety touch as you knit, and you’ll appreciate its amazing durability for years to come… Whatever you knit with Santolina will last!

Choose from 16 gorgeous colors to cast on for your Early Bloom Shawl, including botanical hues like this brand-new Purple Clover. Each fiber in the mix takes the dye a bit differently, giving Santolina’s palette a fascinating, gently heathered depth. One skein of Santolina goes a long way, so you only need three to knit a shawl or two for the smaller scarf version!

Yarn lovers, if you adore the yarn used in this project, you’ll love exploring all of our other yarn collections! Discover over 45 thoughtfully designed yarns in nearly every natural fiber and in every spectacular color you can imagine. Only available here at Purl Soho’s online yarn store, where every skein is created with care and your creativity in mind!

Pattern designed and written by Purl Soho designer, Hiromi Glover. See even more of Hiromi’s work on her Instagram!

Share your progress and connect with the community by tagging your pics with #PurlSoho. We can’t wait to see what you make!

Want to print this pattern? On desktop, find the “print” icon in the right margin, and on mobile, scroll to the end of the pattern for it. Use the on-screen instructions to remove anything you don’t want to print!

Materials

• 2 (3) skeins of Purl Soho’s Santolina, 70% organically grown cotton, 20% bamboo and 10% hemp. Each skein of this fingering-weight yarn is 328 yards/ 100 grams; approximately 420 (825) total yards required. We used the color Purple Clover.
• US 3 (3.25 mm), 16- and 32- or 40-inch circular knitting needles (NOTE: You can use just the 32- or 40-inch needles, but they may be a bit unruly at the beginning of the project when you’re working only a few stitches!)

GAUGE

24 stitches and 42 rows = 4 inches in stitch pattern

SIZES

Scarf (Shawl)

• Finished Length of Wingspan: 33 (44) inches
• Finished Length of Each Short Side: 24¾ (33) inches
• Finished Length from Cast On Point to Middle of Wingspan: 18½ (24¾) inches

SAMPLE: We knit the Shawl size.

NOTES

SLIP STITCHES

Slip all stitches purlwise with yarn in front (wyif).

DANDELION FLOWER STITCH (FLO)

(Worked over 4 stitches)

Insert right needle tip into the stitch 3 rows below the second stitch on left needle…

…wrap yarn around right needle as if to knit and loosely pull a loop through to the front of the work…

…*k2 (the first and second stitch on left needle), insert right needle tip into the same stitch where you pulled through the first loop, then wrap yarn as if to knit and pull through another loop…

…repeat from * one more time, so you have pulled through 3 loops total.

Note that on the following wrong-side row, you will purl each of the loops together with a regular stitch. On the row where you create the loops, they are not counted as additional stitches.

PATTERN

Cast on 5 stitches. We used a basic Long Tail Cast On.

Set-Up Row (wrong side): Slip 2 (see Notes), p1, slip 2.

Row 1 (right side): K1, knit front and back (kfb) 2 times, k2. [7 stitches]

Row 2 (wrong side): Slip 2, purl to last 2 stitches, slip 2.  

Row 3: K1, kfb, knit to last 3 stitches, kfb, k2. [2 stitches increased]

Row 4: Repeat Row 2.

Row 5 and 6: Repeat Rows 3 and 4 one more time. [11 total stitches]

Row 7: K1, kfb, k2, FLO (see Notes), kfb, k2. [13 stitches, not including pulled through loops]

Row 8: Slip 2, p2, [purl 2 together (p2tog), p1] 3 times, p1, slip 2.

REPEATING DANDELION FLOWER PATTERN

Row 1 (right side): K1, kfb, k to last 3 stitches, kfb, k2. [2 stitches increased]

Row 2 (wrong side): Slip 2, purl to last 2 stitches, slip 2. 

Row 3–6: Repeat Rows 1 and 2 two more times.

Row 7: K1, kfb, k2, *FLO, k4, repeat from * to last 7 stitches, FLO, kfb, k2. [2 stitches increased, not including pulled through loops]

Row 8: Slip 2, p2, *[p2tog, p1] 3 times, p2 repeat from * last 12 stitches, [p2tog, p1] 3 times, p1, slip 2.

Repeat Rows 1–8 twenty-two (30) more times. [197 (261) stitches]

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 one more time. [199 (263) stitches]

With right side facing you, bind off knitwise.

FINISHING

WEAVE IN ENDS + BLOCK

Weave in the ends, and gently wet block to finished dimensions.

MAKE TASSELS (SHAWL SIZE ONLY)

Using a piece of cardboard that is 4½ inches long by at least 4 inches wide, wrap the yarn 45 times the long way around the cardboard. Visit our Tassel Tutorial to finish. Make two more identical tassels and use the tails to attach each tassel to the points of the wrap.

Gently steam tassels and enjoy your wrap!

Looking for more inspiration? Explore all of our knitting patterns (including tons of free knitting patterns) and knitting tutorials, buy one of our many knitting kits and yarn bundles, and shop for beautiful yarn. We have over 35 gorgeous natural fiber yarns in 100’s of magnificent colors, designed to bring integrity, beauty, and joy to your next knitting project and only available at Purl Soho!