A Brilliant Colonnade

A colonnade is a characteristic in the buildings of Classical architecture, and consists of a row of vertical columns joined horizontally by an entablature, or a series of bands and moldings that sat above it, resting upon the column capitals. These bands can be highly decorated with relief sculpture.

Often, a classical building consisted of several colonnades, several rows deep. In Classical architecture, the front row or rows is known as the portico, and the surrounding colonnades (around the sides and back) are known as the peristyle.

I always wonder the purpose or thought behind titles. After discovering the true meaning of "colonnade", it's obvious why the designer, Stephen West of Westknits, chose this word to title his popular fall shawl/scarf on knitty.com. The series of columns create a colonnade but there is a horizontal joining each of the columns. These horizontals helped me "see" the pattern more easily, allowing mistakes to be seen and fixed more easily.

This is an easy pattern, but tricky at the same time. The knitter must keep careful track of the yo2 for they come at different places on each row, including before and after the k2tog. I suppose this is just everyday stuff for the average lace knitter, but since I am just a regular knitter, these tricky instructions are new to me.

I decided to offer this class at Wild Purls (in March), 1) because the pattern intrigued me in the different manners it could be worn,(not a granny shawl) 2) I liked that it only used 3 skeins of my favorite yarn, Manos del Uraguay (I could buy my fave without blowing my Christmas gift cards) and 3) that it introduced lace knitting in a way that could be easily knit by an adventurous knitter. And since that's kind of how I feel about my knitting most of the time, I thought there might be others (like in Lost) like me out there, waiting to discover another world on the same knitting island. Wow, I really digressed.