Spanish Moss is a hugely important part of the landscape here in New Orleans, and it has inspired a lacy linen wrap that I’d like to share with you. I hope you’ll enjoy the Spanish Moss Wrap! Take 30% off the pattern price in my Ravelry shop through Friday, May 13. Coupon code is in the sidebar.
I was in Audubon Park over the weekend where the moss hangs so thick in the live oaks that it looks almost staged. It drips from the branches and moves with the breeze. It’s hard to believe it’s a living thing! It’s funny, though…Spanish Moss is neither Spanish, nor is it moss. In fact, it’s a flowering epiphyte (air plant) in the bromeliad family!
The geometric rhythm of hanging moss, of vines, of even, moving grasses inspire this lacy linen wrap. It is simple, minimal and restrained in form while highlighting the crisp reedy quality of natural linen. The rhythmic movement of a leaflike pattern evolves into simple fagoting that crosses the fabric’s surface. Spanish Moss is an uncomplicated rectangular wrap that showcases the fresh, sinuous character of the fiber.
Choose a nature-inspired color
I’d envisioned a linen yarn for this wrap from the beginning. Linen provides the perfect marriage of airiness and drape to echo the lightness and movement of spanish moss. Because I am not normally a huge fan of chained yarns, I was not prepared to fall in love with Shibui Reed but, boy, did I. Crisp in the hand yet silky as you knit, Reed counts among my top 5 best yarn discoveries of all time! As with the rest of this sublime line of yarns, the palette available for Reed is beautifully muted, sophisticated and drawn from nature.
Cast on a lacy linen wrap!
This lacy linen wrap starts with a picot cast on, one of my favorite ways to cast on a shawl. Often, I’ll use this cast on for cuff down socks, like Picnic. I love the little picot “knots” that form along the edge. This is an easy cast on that is highly adaptable. Make the bumps bigger or smaller. Put them closer together or space them farther apart. The picots are formed by binding off while casting on. If that seems a little counterintuitive, read on!
Here’s how I cast on Spanish Moss. Ideas for customizing the cast on are in italics.
- Using the knitted method, CO 11 sts, using the standard bind off method, *BO 2 sts. These two stitches determine the size of the little picot. For a bigger “knot”, bind off more stitches.
- Transfer the remaining st to left needle and using the knitted method, CO 14 sts; These 14 sts represent the distance between the picot knots. Want your knots closer together? Cast on fewer stitches in between.
- Repeat from * until you have all the stitches you desire!
I hope you’ll enjoy this pattern! It’s an easy meditative project that creates a lightweight summer wrap.
