Welcome back to “Free Pattern Friday”, a fresh new free pattern every week! You’ll find today’s pattern at the very bottom of this page.

Today’s project is shawl #3 in a series of four that will be offered through Free Pattern Friday. Based on the feedback I’ve been getting, knitters love shawls! They’re pretty, useful, easy to fit, and use (relatively) small amounts of yarn. Plus, accessories in outside-the-box colors and patterns are such a welcome and refreshing hit for any wardrobe.

This is no shrinking violet! The Big Island Wrapper is a triangular wrap in thick absorbent pima cotton.  Snug and  deeply textured, Big Island is perfect for cool evenings at the beach or by the campfire and has a towel-like coziness when you’re fresh from the lake. Big Island is fun to knit; it uses a bias shaping strategy which means that it grows by two stitches on one side and shrinks by one stitch on the other side every right side row. In the end, you’ll have created a long, lush triangle with a deep open edging. Because of the super soft bulky weight pima cotton, you’ll find that it grows very quickly. In fact, if you start today, you might have it ready for the family picnic on Monday! The Big Island Wrapper also has a dab of brioche thrown in for excitement during the color transitions to keep things interesting as you work away in easy Andalusian Stitch.

As usual, I’ve got an extra little treat for you this week! Did you know that the popular Cockleshells Hat was originally designed as a summer topper? I dreamed it up last spring as an introductory lace pattern for a class I was teaching and wound up wearing it all summer! I found it to be light, cool and easy to wear and was a real lift saver for keeping beach blown tresses in line while on the boat or at the beach. It is extremely loose fitting and slouchy, so no hat head! Berocco Indigo is a wonderfully soft cotton made from recycled jeans that comes in a variety of neutrals and brights. If you can achieve gauge, I think this hat would be amazing in my most recent summer favorite, KnitPicks Cotlin, a blend of linen and tanguis cotton. It is technically a DK, but might just be crazy enough to work! (I have to say, I have not actually tried this, but I’ve got a color all picked out 😉 I’d love for you to try it, so the Cockleshells Summer Hat pattern is $2 off this weekend with the coupon code SUNFUN2.

I’ve started a Free Pattern Friday Ravelry group where you can post your comments, chat, feedback, modifications and suggestions. I hope to see you there!

Here are a few little notes about the patterns…I’ve based these points on some of the problems people sometimes have retrieving their free patterns. So far, only about 1% have problems, but nonetheless…

1. These patterns are printable… click the “Print” button in the lower corner inside the pattern border. To date, the Free Patterns are not available as PDF downloads.
2. These patterns are free for charity and personal use but not for distribution.  Please link back to http://littlechurchknits.com whenever possible. Feel free to contact me at with any questions.
3. If the pattern will not print after clicking the “Print” button, you can copy and paste the information to another file in your computer. This goes for the images too. If all else fails, try updating your browser settings. This is more likely to cause a problem than your operating system.
4. Please know that I have tested (and RE-tested) the print capability of every single one of these patterns, but it is impossible for me to understand what is going on in the thousands of computers that attempt to print it.

 

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