Drachenfels is a beautiful pattern designed by Melanie Berg. It is always tricky when you’ve knit the same shawl several times to know how to write about your thought processes without it becoming uninteresting for the person reading it! The second Drachenfels Shawl was completed this time using the luxurious Regia Premium Merino Yak sock yarn in autumnal colours.
For Drachenfels Shawl No. 2 I chose to use a yarn that was new to me at the time. After knitting the shawl, I brought the collection into the Yarn Shop as I loved knitting with it so much.
It is always interesting to revisit a project a few years after it was finished to see how the yarn stood up over time. I knit this lovely Drachenfels shawl in November-December 2018 for my mum for Christmas. At the time, I didn’t have the chance to wash and block the shawl or photograph it before I wrapped it to put under the Christmas Tree. My mum wears the shawl a lot through the winter months when it is chilly. So this summer (August 2021), I decided it was time to give this Drachenfels a handwash and block it for her for the coming winter.
The photographs have all been taken after this was done. The shawl is beautiful. There has been no pilling over the preceding years of wear. At the moment I am knitting a sweater for Neil using this fantastic yarn and I shall be really interested to see how it wears when I’ve finished the sweater. The yarn is machine washable at 30 degrees Celsius which is perfect for socks but I normally handwash my shawls and sweaters.
I used Regia Premium Merino Yak sock yarn in Teal Mix 7514 for Colour A, in Flint Mix 7511 for Colour B and Raspberry Mix 7507 for Colour C. One of the wonderful things about knitting Drachenfels is that it has oodles of relaxing garter stitch with little bits of interest added by changing colour stripes and by stripes of slip stitches.
Regia Premium Merino Yak sock yarn is a blend of 58% merino wool, 28% polyamide and 14% yak fibre. The subtle mélange effect is created by the natural brown colour of the undyed yak fibres. Yak wool is a particularly fine fibre that gives a very soft, comfortable, warm and lightweight knitted fabric.
I used the suggested needles of 4mm for knitting Drachenfels. This is a looser tension than recommended for the yarn which is partly why I was interested to see how it would wear over time. I didn’t change the needle size for the I-cord bind-off as I found using the larger sized needle created an edge that was too loose.
This shawl was the first project that I knit after months of physiotherapy on my right hand after fracturing my fingers. I found knitting to be a useful form of exercise for my hand. And, I had fun trying the new, to me knitting techniques of the Norwegian Knit stitch. It did mean though that the tension in my shawl isn’t a perfect as I normally aim for as it changed depending on how I was knitting the garter stitch and depending upon how painful and or unflexible my fingers were when I was knitting that day.
I love knitting with Regia Premium Merino Yak sock yarn and will definitely be knitting many more projects using it.
Your shawl is beautiful. I just finished mine and it doesn’t look nearly as nice as yours. I knitted the icord edge all the way around. The instructions weren’t very clear on that. I’m tempted to take the two sides out. But the color chang side is not that neat and the icord covers it somewhat. However the edging is tighter, somewhat puckery around the shawl. I am hoping blocking fixes that. But after seeing yours. I may take out the icord on 2 sides and live with rough looking edge where I wove in the yarn. Looking at your beautiful shawl was helpful. Thank you.