Thirty, Flirty and Thriving

I'm turning 30 soon! This is a big milestone, leaving my twenties and moving on to the next decade and I'm pretty dang content. A lot of people have a bit of a freak out when they reach a milestone like this but I'm so happy! Each year seems to get better and better and I'm totally content where I am in life. It's a nice realization. 

In celebration of my birthday I came up with the cutest, flirtiest, celebratory shawl. Not only to celebrate birthdays but emerging from 2 years of COVID restrictions, we all need a party shawl! Thirty, Flirty and Thriving is what will put you in the party mood and bring so much joy to your knitting time. 

Thirty, Flirty and Thriving is a top down triangle shawl that features a garter tab cast-on and simple triangle shaping. This easy to memorize pattern is mainly stockinette stitch with garter bumps interspersed, these garter bumps turn into the base for your ruffle! The ruffles in the sample were knit with mohair but could also be knit with a regular fingering weight or alpaca/silk if mohair isn't your thing. 

The first photo below has examples of both a regular merino fingering weight for a ruffle (top ruffle) and a mohair/silk blend for a ruffle (bottom ruffle) so that you can see which style is your preference. 

This shawl was wonderful to knit with a variegated yarn because it kept the simple body interesting with the changing colors and then the glorious texture of mohair/silk blend made for happy fingers! 

I also think that a tweed base fingering weight as the body and then a contrast color the same as the tweed neps would be so pretty and more subtle that the original version. Thirty, Flirty and Thriving could also be knit in a heavier weight yarn but there would have to be some yardage adjustments. Enjoy your new party shawl! -- Sierra