Champs Fleuris

So, it has been quite some time since my last pattern publication. I have to say for myself that I have been much occupied with more complex designs than before, and this one is certainly my most complex to date. I have to say that it is also my best, at least in my own opinion!

You can buy Champs Fleuris from my Ravelry:

 

Or my Craftsy shop. Champs Fleuris is also the sixth and final design of my collection: It's so FLUFFY!, available on Ravelry.


So, here I present Champs Fleuris, a bottom up shawl with pleats, lace and textured flowers. It is an extremely feminine design, all in ruffles and flowers and perfect to warm up your spirit when the weather forces you to pull on your warmest coat.

It is available in 2 sizes: a kerchief size, using only one skein of fingering weight yarn (blue sample, using Cascade Yarns Heritage silk) and full scale shawl using 2 skeins of fingering weight yarn (pink sample, using Madelinetosh Tosh Light).

Champs Fleuris is started at the ruffles, by casting on a large number of stitches. My suggestion is to place a marker every 50 to 100 stitches as well as a marker to locate the center stitch. This should save you some time and frustration! Also, don't make the mistake of going with the long tail cast on here: you will hate running out of yarn!

Visit my techniques page for a tutorial on how to make the pleats correctly, if you have any doubts!

The next section is a pretty pictorial lace representing a daisy flower, repeated in a single row. This section is charted only, but is fairly easy if you know how to work lace from a chart. The daisies are framed by 2 Vikkel Braids, for which you can have good links in my Techniques page.

Next and main section if the Paquerette stitch body, a very nice textured flower stitch I found in one of my dearest French stitchionary, dating from the early 70's. The flower motif is offered in two option, an aligned option with the flowers aligned with the spine of the shawl (blue sample) and a scattered version (pink sample).

This section is a delicate one to perform, not because of the inner difficulty of the technique, which is quite simple, but because it is a little unusual and may confuse some knitters at first. I do strongly encourage you to try out the motif on some scrap yarn before you start it.

You may also simply opt to place a lot of markers: one for every time you repeat the bracket, to make sure your flowers stay in line. This way, you will ensure you did not forget a p2tog somewhere along the way! I am also providing you with a little visual aid in the form of this small chart, representing a flower motif over the 5 rows it actually takes place over.

In this little chart started from the WS, the dot represent the stitch you use to draw the stitches from, the arrows are the added sts drawn trough the fabric and the p2tog are placed so the drawn sts are placed before the sts they are purled with. The total flower motif takes 5 stitches, and if you do not count the added stitches drawn trough the fabric to create the flower, those stitches do not change.

This all makes for a shawl you should be extremely proud to wear, in the spring and summer over your favorite dress or in the Fall and Winter to brighten up your woolen coat.