This week Kelley decided to whip up the Knit Your Love Shawl by Martina Behm, a pattern available on Ravelry. It's a lovely shawl edged with hearts, perfect for a dinner on the patio for Valentine's Day! 

How to Knit Shawls Faster

Kelley wanted to knit the shawl pattern faster than it would take with fingering weight yarn and decided to the substitute yarn to achieve that. She used Malabrigo Rios, a worsted weight yarn, so the shawl would knit up faster. Using a larger yarn also makes for larger hearts, which makes the shawl stand out even more! 

How to Make Modified Increases for the Hearts

The pattern calls for a knit front back increase into the same stitch six times when shaping the hearts on the edge. This causes the original stitch to get way too tight. Kelley instead did a knit 1, yarnover, knit 1, yarnover, kfb all into the same stitch.  When purling the next row, purl the yarn overs through the back loop. This is a much easier and faster way to do your increases for the hearts on the edge of shawl and for anytime you need to increase a large amount of stitches out of a single stitch.