Tag: triangle shawl

Alternatives to the Hidden Gems Shawl Pattern

Hidden Gems was a popular free shawl knitting pattern. Since it is no longer available, I have found some similar patterns for knitters. Check out the list and let me know if you choose one.

Maybe at some point the creator of the Hidden Gems shawl pattern will re-release her pattern. It was listed on her website, but the website is no long up. I’ve had readers ask about this pattern.

I want to be helpful, but I no longer have the pattern printout. All I can do is try to figure out how this thing was knit. Or, I can suggest some similar patterns that may be helpful. That would be easier, and it turns out there are quite a few very similar knits. None of the patterns I found were free.

Hidden Gems shawl knitting
hidden gems shawl
begging end of hidden gems
ending edge of hidden gems
end tail of hidden gems
Hidden gems shawl
Hidden Gems free shawl pattern
Hand-spun shawl / scarf
Hidden Gems shawl knitting

Triangle Shawl Patterns

The Hidden Gems is a triangle shawl. It was a free pattern. It has a “ridge” that begins by running down the center of the knitting. Once the shawl is wide enough, decreases are made along one edge, while the other continues with increases. You can read my notes on the page I wrote while knitting the pattern. I honestly don’t think the pattern would be difficult to figure out, but I don’t have time to do that. A savvy knitter could work it out.

Instead, I am going to list some shawl patterns here that may make a good substitute for Hidden Gems. I chose them because they have that center “ridge” for at least part of the shawl. They are not free patterns, and the difficulty (and yarn amounts) will vary. I honestly don’t mind supporting a designer who has gone to the trouble of creating a decent, readable pattern. All links go to the designer’s Ravelry page.

Search For Similar Shawl Patterns

If you’d like to do your own search for shawl patterns, in hopes of finding something that is free, keep these keywords in mind.

The Hidden Gems is listed as a triangle shawl, which it is. It is also asymetrical. If you want a smaller shawl, search for a shawlette. Search on Google, Ravelry, Pinterest, and Etsy to find shawl patterns. Just be careful of free patterns by designers that are not well known.

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Knitting The Moon Sisters Shawl Pattern in Orange

I purchased the Moon Sisters shawl pattern in June 2019 (and finished June 2020! – see the end of this post for the update).

This triangle shawl is knit by holding two fingering weight yarns together except for the middle section where the yarns are separated to create a pattern. The cast-on for the shawl begins with a typical shawl cast-on, only much longer than any I’ve ever done. The center pattern is a chart only, which for me was not all that easy to figure out. Fortunately I was able to view what other knitters had done, and that helped. It is a small chart, and once you get the hang of it, it goes along fine.

So besides doing that long cast on and figuring out the chart for the center stitches, you will have to know how to knit / purl through the back loop, and how to “make one” left and right in order to knit this pattern. Most of the shawl will be knitting or purling with that break for the center design.

This pattern can be found on Ravelry – Moon Sisters, by Caitlin Hunter.

Moon Sisters Shawl beginning the project
Moon Sisters Shawl

The center pattern is a series of triangle shapes which, to me, look like arrows. Because the orange color I am using is variegated and not solid bright orange, occasionally my center stitches are come out lighter. Then, my center pattern does not stand out as much as it should. Still, I love these colors together. My plan is to use up some dark colors in my stash, but the orange will be used throughout.

“10 Questions” Emma’s Yarn, is the orange yarn I’m using.

The Moon Sisters shawl is finished with fringe, and I think that is the charm of it. I’m a bit of an old hippie from the 70’s, so fringe appeals to me – sometimes. In this case, I think it makes the shawl even better.

Orange and blue knitting shawl pattern "Moon Sisters Shawl" by Caitlin Hunter
Main color orange is “10 Questions” shown here with Denim blue

While I am knitting this shawl, I was also working on the Quince Wrap, the Fine Sand sweater, and a baby sweater called Playdate. Those are now finished, and so are my Pink Mitts and Winter Morning headband. So Moon Sisters has become my occaisonal go to knitting project. I’m in no hurry to finish it and it’s straight forward enough to do while I watch TV.

As of November, this is where I am with my progress on this shawl. I just added a dark purple (a Wild Iris colorway by Miss Babs) to knit with the orange because I wasn’t liking the green all that much.

I’m still on my first of three skeins of orange yarn so I should have plenty. I’ll keep some of all the colors I use to apply the fringe at the end.

Moon sisters shawl knitting
Getting on with my knitting and added dark purple.

Moon Sisters Has Fringe!

I have yet to wash and block my shawl, but today I got all the fringe attached – no small feat!

I saved a ball of my main color: Emma’s Yarn, in “10 Questions” orange to mix with other yarn for the fringe. I ended up using all the orange.

Cutting yarn for fringe
Scrap yarn for fringe
Fringe on orange Moon Sisters shawl
Adding all that fringe is a job!
Cutting yarn for fringe as Fontana watches
Fontana loves all that string!
Moon sisters shawl finished
Moon sisters shawl finished

I do recommend this shawl, if you like knitting shawls. This one is a biggie. I used all three skeins of orange yarn, and it was held with lots of other colors. I needed to buy a 60 inch circular needle to finish it up, but you could always cut it shorter.

The somewhat boring knitting and purling is interrupted with that little center pattern, which is nice.

It took me a year to finish this, but I kept putting it aside to work on other things. Tomorrow I will wash it, and it will be ready to wrap up in – just in time for 100+ temps… LOL.

Casting On “Dewdrops” Triangle Shawl

In my previous post I mentioned that I was searching for the next project to cast-on. I’ve decided on the Dewdrops shawl, which is triangle shaped, but is knit from the bottom up. Here’s a photo of what I’ve knit so far. It’s a simple pattern that looks nice on both sides. I’m about a third of the way through the rows, but they will get longer and become more time consuming. Once this section is done, a lace border is added. That will be interesting.

I am using Emma’s Yarn, merino and silk, which is hand-dyed here in Florida for the Four Purls yarn store. It was so nice to walk among yarn skeins and see them in person, which I did when the Four Purls Yarn Truck (what an ingenious idea!) came to my area. Usually I must buy my yarn online and hope for the best because I have no yarn shops nearby.

Janina Kallio is the designer of Dewdrops and the pattern is easy to understand, with written directions.

This beautiful merino and silk yarn is called “Main Squeeze” which resembles the color of orange and pink grapefruit juices. We are in Florida, after all! It is soft and silky.

Dewdrop shawl knitting and this one starts at the bottom
Beginning the Dewdrops shawl pattern

The Cold and Wind Are Keeping Me Indoors

Windy days are upon us here in east, central Florida and that makes boating and fishing difficult. My son is a Florida native and can’t stand temperatures below 60. The heat goes on and he refuses to consider going boating. Floridians are wimps.

I know that no one will pity me having to deal with winter temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s… hahaha… !! Wait until summer. That is when I want your pity.

Being indoors more than usual has given me plenty of opportunity to knit. Recently I finished up two projects; the “Let’s Stripe” hat and “Scrappy Bias Shawl“. It seems I always have many projects going at once. I suppose most knitters do.

Update on “Dewdrops” Progress

Been knitting like crazy between a few projects I have going, but I’m almost done with the triangle section of the Dewdrops shawl. It is a very simple pattern, which would be great for a beginner. It’s almost too boring for me at this point. But it is a relaxing break from knitting my first sweater, which has turned out to be a challenge. See the Umpqua Sweater knitting post here.

This is the first time I’ve knit with Emma’s Yarn and it is very lovely. The color is gorgeous as well. My plan for the border is to use a denim blue color, or something dark. I’ll change my mind many times before I get there I’ll bet! I may wait to buy more of Emma’s Yarn when the Yarn Truck visits again in April.

Pink and peach Emma's Yarn used to knit the Dewdrops shawl, which is in progress.

Denim blue Emma’s Yarn is now purchased and wound into a ball ready to use. Dewdrops is off hibernation and ready to finish. I’ve been waiting for Four Purls to visit again so I could grab more of this Super Silky yarn. The yarn truck arrived April 16th and even though I had to pay taxes and not get a refund I managed to spend a bunch during my visit to New Smyrna Beach.

Denim blue ball of Emma's yarn
Denim blue color ball of yarn to finish my Dewdrops shawl.

Now I am knitting the lace border of the Dewdrops shawl with the denim yarn. Once I got the first row done I could see how the stitches lined up. Also I did count them and I appreciate designers including row counts in their patterns. The only place I am having trouble is at the “point” but so far it looks fine. I’ve had to fix a few missed stitches, but that is me. I’m still learning. This is one completed set of stitches and I have one more set to go. The border will be double this width.

Lace border

Check Out My New Shawl!

I finished knitting this shawl in May. See my photos of this finished project on this post.

My Finished Shawl, TTL Mystery Shawl 18 Knit Along

July 27th was the day our last clue arrived for the mystery shawl knit along, provided by designer Kirsten Kapur / Through the Loops.  We knitters had until August 27th to enter our finished shawl photos to the Finished Shawls, TTL Mystery Shawl 18 thread at Ravelry for a chance to win prizes.    That means all done knitting, washed, blocked and photos taken.

On August 3rd I added my finished shawl photo to the thread. Finally the colors looked right as I took the shawl outdoors to get some photos.  Taking selfies of this long shawl on my own body was not easy, but finally I got it right!

MKAL finished shawl
Vine Pops shawl

Never before have I worn or knit a shawl like this one. It took nearly 2 skeins of yarn. As you can see, the lace pattern ended up gorgeous. I am very happy with the end result, and truthfully quite amazed that I could knit this!

Clue #1 was given out June 22nd, so in little over a month I had knit myself this beautiful accessory. Too bad I live in Florida where I will seldom get a chance to wear it. I will take it with me on every trip back to New Hampshire.

This shawl was named VINE POPS and the pattern can be purchased here on Ravelry.

The MKAL Story in a Nutshell, or Longer

yellow and blue balls of yarn
Balls of yarn (Miss Babs “Cumin” and “Coventry”) are ready for knitting

As I finish up with this fun event, looking back I first thought that I may have chosen my yarn differently. I love the Woodbury from Miss Babs, which is soft and wonderful, but I wasn’t too sure about the yellow “cumin” color.  The light blue “Coventry” is so pretty, I would probably use it again in another project.

Some knitters began running out of Color A yarn (my color A is yellow “cumin”) during Clue 3. The designer, Kirsten Kapur, suggested that I might want to use a third, contrast color, at this point. My yarn stash is pretty small, so all I could come up with was anther Miss Babs yarn called “Canyon Wren”.  This became my Color C, which was added in Clues 3, 4 and 6.

(This shawl pattern is available for anyone to purchase although the MKAL is just about over.)

Now that the project is finished, I do like my color choices.  I think adding the color C (rust red) was a good choice as well.  Not many knitters did that, so mine is a unique in that way.

knitting a shawl
Color C added in Clue #3 because I ran out of yarn

My stitch markers were a life saver, but during Clue 5 the markers moved! This really threw me off. When I counted my stitches they didn’t stay the same between the markers and I didn’t know if it was my mistake or the pattern. Someone in the forum said to look at the chart pattern, which would show this happening.  That did help me even though I can’t read a chart well.  (Something else to learn.)

I ended up okay, but made a bunch of mistakes during this clue. I did a lot of counting too, and the fact that Kirsten gave us counts for all the rows in her pattern was super helpful.  Somehow the lace ended up looking fine – that was pure luck!  It is so pretty.

finished knitting the shawl
Shawl is done!

I was very worried about the bind off, which was like picot flowers. It looked very involved, and I could easily see myself messing it up. Since it is an edging, it would stand out, and I didn’t want that mistake to be obvious.  Clue 6 was one of the easiest to knit, except for the bind-off.  Kirsten kindly created a video to show the bind off, but I still didn’t feel confident about it.

Mystery shawl knit-along in lace

When I visited the “Clue 6” forum at Ravelry, I saw that some other knitters had also decided not to do the fancy bind-off. Their shawls looked great. I did a regular bind-off and it looks fine.

Lots of Firsts For Me

I’ve never knit lace.
I’ve never followed such an intricate pattern.
I’ve never knit an asymmetrical shawl.
I’ve never before done a knit along, mystery or otherwise.
I had never done a cdd or sk2p stitch.
This was the first knitting pattern I have ever purchased online.

Because I have conquered all these firsts, and ended up with a decent, wearable shawl, I have the confidence to continue trying difficult, more advanced patterns. Kirsten has so many beautiful items, with patterns for sale. Since I live in a hot climate, most of what I knit is for my daughter who lives up north, or for me to take when I travel.

finished shawl mystery knit along
Nature and knitting – the finished Vine Pops shaw.

I love to knit, and to learn new things.  The only way to expand our knowledge is to step out of our comfort zone and dive into something new.

I’m wondering what will be next.  A summer shawl knit along is now offered, so maybe that……….

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Alternatives to the Hidden Gems Shawl Pattern

Hidden Gems was a popular free shawl knitting pattern. Since it is no longer available, I have found some similar patterns for knitters. Check out the list and let me know if you choose one.

Pam's avatar by Pam