Gosh that’s Darn Good Yarn

Sharing my thoughts on Darn Good Yarn’s Linen and Silk Yarns

Lately I’ve had the fabulous opportunity to work with a great yarn company on a pattern collaboration. Darn Good Yarn and I worked together to create a beautiful shawl using their linen and silk yarn.

Darn Good Yarn works to create beautiful yarns from recycled materials. But they don’t stop there. As a US based company, they work to provide meaningful work and wages to women in India. This is near and dear to my heart.

In full disclosure, this was my first time working with their yarns and I really fell in love over the course of this shawl.

Let’s talk miss spins – you know those pesky breaks in the yarn that you find by surprise. Some companies consider up to three or four per skein okay. In all four skeins of Darn Good Yarn, there was a grand total of: one.

One, that’s it! I expected there to maybe be more with this being recycled or should I say up-cycled fibers. These were a dream to work with.

The Pattern Featuring Darn Good Yarn: Moonbeam Crescent Shawl

The combination of fingering and sport weight yarn just begged to be made into a shawl. Recently I’ve fallen in love with crescent shawls for two reasons: Their shape and construction.

The Shape of a Crescent Shawl

These shawls just naturally want to stay on your body. The curve creates a wonderful drape that looks fabulous. Where triangular shawls are bulky, crescent shawls are more flattering. In these gorgeous hues from Darn Good Yarn, they’re down right stunning.

The Construction of a Crescent Shawl

Crescent shawls are so simple to make, especially in the way I’ve written this pattern. This simplicity opens up space for a lot of different combinations. As a designer you can easily play with color and texture – and boy did I have fun doing it with this yarn.

Darn Good Yarn Makes Darn Good Colors

For the Moonbeam shawl, I chose their purple, grey and polar bear white linen 2 ply yarn. The colors remind me of moon beams in different seasons, from spring to winter. And then, inspired by the shimmering reflection of the moon on North Park’s lake, I added in the fingering weight Silk with sparkle called Tidal Pool.

You can get the pattern here.