Midas Touch Cable Shawl

Free Shawl Knitting Pattern

I called this shawl the Midas Touch Shawl, because the motif of golden cables for some reason makes me think of Ancient Crete and the many beautiful myths told about that land. Probably I'm the only one who would make this association :)

Cables! This shawl has a lot of cables! I was thinking how cables are usually knitted either horizontally or vertically, and that's kind of boring, so I decided to put these cables on a diagonal. The area in between them is filled with a matching hand-dyed yarn.

The shawl is worked from one of the corners, with increases at the end of the RS row in every odd row. This construction allows you to make this shawl of any size you would like to: from a neck scarf to a big comfortable shawl for winter evenings. The shawl is finished with applied I-cord around all 3 sides of the shawl.

The shawl in the picture is mid-sized and the yarn amounts are given for this size. You’ll of course need more for a bigger shawl. This is a good project to use hand-dyed yarn from your stash. You can even use several different colors of hand-dyed yarn, as long as they match the solid color main yarn of the project. That will make the color scheme even more interesting. However, I recommend to use only one color for the main yarn.

Finished size: Width - 64 inches (160 cm), depth - 29 inches (72 cm)

Materials:

• 100% Wool Lorna's Laces (affiliate link) Shepherd Sport Multi sport weight yarn 200 yds (182 m)/70g - 3 skeins. Color 64 Gold Hill. (CC)
• 100% Wool Brown Sheep (affiliate link) Nature Spun Sport Weight yarn 184 yd (168 m)/50g - 4 skeins. Color 308 Sunburst Gold. (MC)

Needles:
circular US 3 (3.25 mm)
cable needle

Gauge:
1 pattern repeat (4 cable sts plus 5 sts) = 1.5” (3.75 cm)
Gauge is not very important

Abbreviations

• sl1 - slip 1
• sl4 wyib - slip 4 with yarn in back
• sl4 wyif - slip 4 with yarn in front
• sl2 wyib - slip 2 with yarn in back
• sl2 wyif - slip 2 with yarn in front
• cn - cable needle
• c4f - slip 2 st on cable needle (cn) and hold in front, knit 2, knit 2 from cn
• m1 (Make 1 increase) - I used the increase described by Elizabeth Zimmerman: Make a backward loop over the right-hand needle and in the next row knit (purl) it as a regular stitch.

Two-Color Cable Pattern:

Row 1 (MC): knit
Row 2 (MC): purl
Row 3 (CC): *p5, sl4 wyib - rep across
Row 4 (CC): *k5, sl4 wyif - rep across
Row 5 (MC): *k5, c4f – rep across
Row 6 (MC): purl
Row 7 (CC): like Row 3
Row 8 (CC): like Row 4
Repeat rows 1-8

Selvedge

There is 1 selvedge st added at the beginning and the end of the row.
At the beginning of each row slip 1
At the end of each row purl 1

Shawl

With MC cast on 10 sts and purl 1 row.
Row 1 (CC): sl1, p3, sl4 wyib, p1, m1, p1.
Row 2 (CC): sl1, k2, sl4 wyif, k3, p1.
Row 3 (MC): sl1, knit to the last st, m1, p1.
Row 4 (MC): sl1, purl to the end of the row.
Row 5 (CC): sl1, p3, sl4 wyib, p3, m1, p1.
Row 6 (CC): sl1, k4, sl4 wyif, k3, p1.
Row 7 (MC): sl1, k3, c4f, k4, m1, p1.
Row 8 (MC): repeat row 4.
Row 9 (CC): sl1, p3, sl4 wyib, p5, m1, p1.
Row 10 (CC): sl1, k6, sl4 wyif, k3, p1.
Row 11 (MC): repeat row 3.
Row 12 (MC): repeat row 4.
Row 13 (CC): sl1, p3, sl4 wyib, p5, sl2 wyib, m1, p1.
Row 14 (CC): sl1, k1, sl2 wyif, k5, sl4 wyif, k3, p1.
Row 15 (MC): sl1, k3, c4f, k8, m1, p1.
Row 16 (MC): repeat row 4.
Row 17 (CC): sl1, p3, sl4 wyib, p5, sl4 wyib, m1, p1.
Row 18 (CC): sl1, k1, sl4 wyif, k5, sl4 wyif, k3, p1.
Row 19 (MC): repeat row 3.
Row 20 (MC): repeat row 4.
Row 21 (CC): sl1, p3, sl4 wyib, p5, sl4 wyib, p2, m1, p1.
Row 22 (CC): sl1, k3, sl4 wyif, k5, sl4 wyif, k3, p1.
Row 23 (MC): sl1, k3, c4f, k5, c4f, k3, m1, p1.
Row 24 (MC): repeat row 4.
Row 25 (CC): sl1, p3, sl4 wyib, p5, sl4wyib, p4, m1, p1.
Row 26 (CC): sl1, *k5, sl4 wyif, repeat from * one more time, k3, p1.
Row 27 (MC): repeat row 3.
Row 28 (MC): repeat row 4.
Row 29 (CC): sl1, p3, *sl4 wyib, p5, repeat from * one more time, sl1 wyib, m1, p1.
Row 30 (CC): sl1, sl2 wyif, *k5, sl4 wyif, repeat from * one more time, k3, p1.
Row 31 (MC): sl1, k3, *c4f, k5, repeat from * one more time, k2, m1, p1.
Row 32 (MC): repeat row 4.
Row 33 (CC): sl1, p3, *sl4 wyib, p5, repeat from * one more time, sl3 wyib, m1, p1.
Row 34 (CC): sl1, k1, sl3 wyif, *k5, sl4 wyif, repeat from * one more time, k3, p1.
Row 35 (MC): repeat row 3.
Row 36 (MC): repeat row 4.
Row 37 (CC): sl1, p3, *sl4 wyib, p5, repeat from * one more time, sl4 wyib, p1, m1, p1.
Row 38 (CC): sl1, k2, sl4 wyif, *k5, sl4 wyif, repeat from * one more time, k3, p1.
Row 39 (MC): sl1, k3, *c4f, k5, repeat from * one more time, c4f, k2, m1, p1.
Row 40 (MC): repeat row 4.
Row 41 (CC): sl1, p3, *sl4 wyib, p5, repeat from * one more time, sl4 wyib, p3, m1, p1.
Row 42 (CC): sl1, k4, sl4 wyif, *k5, sl4 wyif, repeat from * one more time, k3, p1.

Continue to work as established, increasing by 1 st at the end of the RS row in every odd row until your shawl is of the desired size. Bind off with applied I-cord. Don’t cut the thread. Continue to work applied I-cord around other 2 sides of the shawl. Binding off with applied I-cord is pretty much the same as working applied I-cord (see video), except you don’t need to pick up stitches along the edge as they are already on the needle.

See video instructions for knitting applied I-cord

Finishing

Block.

Enjoy!

Click image to enlarge