Shawna's Freia Ombré Daybreak Shawl

I have always had my eye on Freia yarn. With all of the amazing gradients and color combinations, who could resist? Once we had the solid versions in the fingering weight, I knew it was just a matter of time before I snatched some up for a project.

Pattern: Daybreak by Stephen West
Materials: Freia Shawl Balls in the Ombre Metal Earth and in Blue Patina Semi-Solid (1 skein each)
Size: Medium
Modifications: shortened outside border

With the holidays approaching, I wanted to make a hand knit gift for my mom (this was my first holiday of hand knit presents). It was a bit daunting! Obviously I wanted to make her a gift that she would love and use, but how to find the perfect project? and the perfect yarn? with colors that she would want to wear? Enter Freia! With all of the beautiful color gradients, I felt confident my gift would be a success.

I chose the Daybreak pattern by Stephen West because it was one of the first knitting patterns that I ever tried and loved. It uses two skeins of fingering weight yarn and is a great project to show off a gradient or variegated yarn. Just pair it with a complimenting color. It has become a go-to pattern when I need a quick and fun project. Plus the pattern can be made in three different sizes depending on who it is for and how much time you have!

I removed the initial blue-green color from the gradient skein and started my shawl with the second color in the ball, the brown. I also removed the blue-green color that is in the middle of the ball and stopped when I reached the blue-green color on the outside. I did all of this to make sure the Blue Patina solid yarn would contrast the most with all the amazing colors in the gradient yarn. Since I removed a bit of yarn, I ended up with the medium sized shawl.

The last time I made the Daybreak, I used superwash yarn. Since Freia Fingering is a single ply 100% merino and NOT superwash, I was pleasantly surprised by how much the yarn bloomed. It really is the plushiest shawl I've made yet!

P.S. My mom loved it! Hooray!