Old Shale or Feather and Fan Lace Pattern

5/1/2006

This is a very old pattern which I am sure many people will recognize and it is most handy to have in your pattern library. It works very well in a scarf, a throw or a sweater. Recently, I saw it in Interweave Knits magazine incorporated into a skirt and it was very effective. For this sample, I used 2ply kid silk (Fleece Artist) and the pattern is below. -Heather Tunnah

Cast on 40 sts (with this yarn I used 4.5mm needles)
Always knit the first 2 sts and the last 2 on every row.
Pattern given for the 36 sts between the 2 knit selvage sts.
Row 1 - knit
Row 2 - purl
Row 3 - (k2tog) 3x, (yo K1) 6x, (k2tog) 6x, (yo K1) 6x, (k2tog) 3x
Row 4 - purl
Repeat these 4 rows until length desired.

Seaman's Scarf with the Feather and Fan Stitch. Yarn is Inca Gold Baby Alpaca, and pattern is available at the shop.

2 Comments

Liz

10/12/2021 11:04:59 pm

Hi! Love this pattern. I’m new actually going back to knitting to strengthen wrist/hands due to Rheumatoid arthritis. I would love to make this into a child blanket usining either DK yarn or worsted. Reason being we are all allergic to wool. What is repeat in pattern and how many stitches for 35/36 inches wide using 9 needles. I can hold 9, 8 maybe.
Thanks! Need to find ur website !!
Liz

Heather link

10/14/2021 11:48:25 am

This is a multiple of 36 stitches. To figure out how many repeats of the 36 you need you would have to knit a swatch of the 36 stitch pattern on your new needles and yarn. Then you can calculate how many you need for the required size.

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