Photos by Making Magazine.

Xerophyte Shawl

Xerophyte is a crescent-shaped shawl dotted with mini-bobbles and edged with a ribbed border. The shawl’s textures and gently-scalloped border contrast soft rounded shapes with crisp geometry, and echo the prickle-studded lobes of prickly pear cacti. Xerophyte takes its name from the class of plants adapted to conserve or store water, which includes cacti and succulents.

This pattern was first published in Making Magazine Issue No.7 / DESERT.

Skills & Techniques

• The shawl is worked from the top down, beginning with a garter tab cast on

• The mini-bobbles are simple to work and require no turning

• The instructions are provided in written form only

Materials Needed

• 2 skeins of A Verb For Keeping Warm Floating (70% superfine alpaca, 20% silk, 10% cashmere; 437yds/400m per 100g skein), or 860yds/786m of fingering-weight yarn. Sample colourway: ‘Lamb’s Ear’

• US 6 / 4mm circular needles (or needle size that gives you the right gauge)

• 12 stitch markers

• A needle for weaving in the ends

• Blocking pins and wires (optional but recommended)

Finished Measurements

• Relaxed after blocking: 85.5”/217cm wingspan, and 16.5”/42cm depth at centre

• You can enlarge or reduce the size of the shawl by working a different number of repeats of the bobble section and/or border rows.

Read more about the Xerophyte Shawl and its inspiration on my blog.