Piccadilly Shawl
With a swoop of lace and the prettiest stitch details, Piccadilly is a romantic crescent shaped shawl designed by Justyna Lorkowska for Loop. The luxuriously soft Eden Cottage Yarns Hayton, is striped together, dotted with eyelets and finished with a delicate picot edge.
We caught up with Justyna to find out more – make sure you read to the end of the post to find out how you could be one of three readers who can win a PDF copy of the pattern!
Hi Justyna! How did you come to start designing and find your place in the woolly world?
Actually, everything started by accident. In my “previous life” I taught English at a public school, mostly to kids and sometimes adults. After having my own children, like many new moms I took up knitting. My son Wojtek re-inspired in me the passion for making beautiful things and being crafty. I began making a lot of knitwear for children and eagerly learning new techniques. Then I started knitting up my own ideas and writing them down. To my surprise and delight people liked my creations and wanted more. After a while I submitted my first small design to Petite Purls (the former webzine with knitwear for kids) and IT clicked… that was four years ago. Gradually, I knit more and more – ideas started pouring out of my head as yarn started pouring out of every shelf and cupboard in my flat (I bet many knitters can relate), and my hobby became my job. I now teach knitting instead of English, and since knitting is now my job I’ve taken on new hobbies, venturing into spinning, weaving and sewing.
How did your ideas for Piccadilly start and how did you translate these for the pattern?
The design process for me is different with different designs. Sometimes I begin by drawing a sketch. Other times I have a particular stitch pattern in mind which haunts me until I translate it to knitwear. And once in a while I just touch a skein of yarn and immediately know what it wants to become. Piccadilly was a mixture of a “stitch pattern craze” and the touch of yarn.
From the moment I wound the skeins I knew they wanted to be an ornamental feminine shawl – something strikingly beautiful to be worn like jewelry.
Piccadilly uses Eden Cottage Yarns Hayton, which we love for its amazing colours. What do you love about the Hayton?
I’m a huge fan of Eden Cottage Yarns, and I haven’t come across any yarn dyed by Victoria that I didn’t like. Hayton is a gorgeous mix of merino, cashmere and nylon, with magnificent stitch definition (perfect for lace and cables!) as well as lovely drape, much needed for a shawl. I’d definitely work with it again.
The colours used for your design (Red Kite and Marigold) look amazing together! How do you like to chose colours and are there any other combinations of yarns you’d like to try?
The colour combination I used for Piccadilly is probably not something people would generally do with yellow. Very often this colour is paired with grey (so called grellow) but I thought I’d try something different. I love the various combinations created by my fabulous testers – their projects ranged from very colourful with variegated picots to calm, neutral ones with a pop of colour. For Piccadilly, Hayton can easily be substituted with fingering weight yarns like Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light or DyeForYarn Fingering Merino & Silk – just make sure the yardage of one skein is not less than 350m.
I’m sure many of our readers are also curious to know why name ‘Piccadilly’ – what does it mean to you?
The last time I was in London I was a student in my early twenties. I remember standing in Piccadilly Square in awe of the atmosphere, the colour, the lights – everything was so vibrant! Most of my designs are named after some memories of good times in my life, and Piccadilly was the first thing I thought of when it was time to name this shawl.
Well, you’ll be back in London soon as we are lucky enough to have you visit and teach at the shop! Tell us more about what people can look forward to.
First, lots of enthusiasm! I love teaching and sharing the knitting experience with peers. I’ll be offering three classes at Loop. Working with Cables and Texture (Saturday 4th June, 3pm – 6pm) will include, among other things, how to cable without a cable needle and how to perform cable surgery, releasing you from the fear of making mistakes. Russian Combination Method (Saturday 4th June, 10am – 2pm) is a class very close to my heart because that is how my mother taught me to knit. The technique is related to continental knitting, but there are some tricks you need to know which will make Russian-style knitting easier and help you read the charts. Finally, my favourite class is The Beauty of Knitted-On Borders (Sunday 5th June, 11am-3pm). I’m completely obsessed with them – I love that they can make a very simple shawl look so intricate and unique. Actually, I’d use them on all my designs if I could. In this class I’ll show you how to create your own border from scratch and attach it to the shawl you want.
Thanks Justyna! Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions and for creating such a wonderful pattern. Also our huge thanks to Susan Cropper for styling and Kristin Perers for her amazing photography.
We’re so thrilled about our new pattern Piccadilly that we’ve decided that not one, not two, but three of you lovely readers should be able to win a copy! That’s right, if you are one of the three names out of the hat then a PDF copy of the new Piccadilly shawl could be winging its way through cyber space to your needles.
All you need to do is leave a comment on the blog saying which colour combination you are musing on. Make sure you get your entries in by midnight on Wednesday 3rd March and we’ll announce the winners on next weeks blog. Good Luck!
One final thing is to announce the winner of last weeks blog post. We gave you folks the chance to win a ball of the stunning Freia Bulky Ombre in the colour Nautilus that we used from our new free pattern Cecelia Cowl… and the winner is Gemma Rice! Congratulations! We’ll be in touch to let you know how to claim your prize.
Thank you to everyone who entered and make sure you get your entries in for this weeks competition too!
Until next week, Happy Knitting and Crocheting!
I love the marigold and red kite so unusual what a fab design
What a beautiful pattern. I especially liked Justyna’s comment about wearing it like a piece of jewelry. Loved the marigold/ red kite combo but am also taken with pairing steele with the red kite. If I don’t win a PDF :-) I’m likely to purchase this pattern!
Looking at all the gorgeous colours, Midnight & Marigild would be my choice – night & day in one lovely pattern!
Such a beautiful pattern. I would choose hyssop and steel as my combination.
Black magic rose and fustian would be my choice, gorgeous design, no getting bored knitting this!
I love this shawl pattern! I just perused the color choices, and now I’m obsessing over Hyssop and Twig together!
Beautiful shawl. I’d love to make one in a Summery combination of Dianthus and Driftwood.
Gorgeous shawl my picks of equally gorgeous would be tarn and hyssop… I can just see it made up in these colours
Certainly Red Kite and Marigold would be my choise. They are absolutely stunning beautiful for this adorable shawl.
Crossing fingers for my luck.
While I love the marigold and red kite combination, I think I would put Dianthus and Black Magic Rose together, I just did the woodland tales mittens out of black magic rose (DK though) and can’t get enough of that colour!
I’d like t knit this in silver and hot pink.
I would chose the same colours as the pattern as they look perfect.
What a difficult choice! Damson or Black Magic Rose and Stone! Stunning pattern!
I love this shawl in its original colours, but also think it would look good in a dusky dark violet and a pale grey violet.
Oh I wish I lived, you know, NOT across an ocean! I would use Driftwood and Hyssop in a heartbeat! <3
I think I would knit this stunning pattern in Steel and Clematis. Really lovely!
I’m a real orange and green kind of girl, so hyssop and marigold are just for me!
Piccadilly is sooo stunning, must have it! Every single colour of Hayton is wonderful, can’t really decide which colour I would choose…maybe clematis and hyssop? Oak and merrigold? Or Black magic and rumbling rose.
I would use hyssop and tarn – beautiful colours for a beautiful shawl – together they remind me of bluebell woods in the spring.
This pattern would be the perfect excuse for me to try out some Eden Cottage. I am drawn to Tarn and Driftwood.
Lovely shawl! I’go for Eden Cottage’s Midnight and Marigold.
Being a Jeans Junkie it would have to be Tarn and Midnight for me
I think it would look amazing in so many colour combinations, but I quite fancy the marigold with hyssop :) Such a stunning design!
Mmmm… Damson and Marigold would be my choice. Such a beautiful, poetic shawl. It would be an interesting challenge for me
It’s hard to choose with so many beautiful colours…midnight and steel is my choice for this beautiful pattern.
So many beautiful colours to choose from…my choice: Midnight and Steel for this beautiful pattern.
This pattern everytime I look at it inspires me. There are so many good combinations but I would choose steel and dianthus.
What a beautiful shawl ,
Fuschia and clematis for me.
I’d go for dianthus and tarn, Really pretty
I just love this shawl, it is the perfect combination of frilly and sophisticated. If only I could make it for me in steel and stone.
It is lovely yarn and for this wonderful pattern I would use Clematis and Fuschia together, although the colours shown in the photos are also sooooo perfect together.
beautiful shawl and too many great colors to make a decision now. although i’m leaning toward marigold and charcoal.
Ooh, it would have to be black magic rose and rambling rose for me.
Beautiful pattern!! My color choice: Tarn and Stone
Although I like many combinations of the colors, I think I would want to make it in Marigold and Red Kite, because of the romantic and nostalgic feeling it gives me.
Black magic rose and rambling rose. Well, that is what I think today. Tomorrow I will want to pick out two different colours – so much luscious choice!
Ooh Tarn & Driftwood for me , such a lovely combination for this beautiful design !
I’m loving driftwood and rambling rose would be great for spring
There are so many gorgeous options, I think I’d be bold and go for coal and fuchsia.
So many pretty choices! My favorite is Rambling Rose and Steel, although this shawl is so beautiful that any of the color combinations would be wonderful.
Very hard to choose but Steel and Black Magic Rose would be where I’d start…
I think marigold and twig would be nice together and kind to the eyes, but I’d almost have to hold the two yarns beside each other to make sure they aren’t to alike.
I would love to knit this in Hayton, Clematis and Steel.
I would try Hyssop and Sand.
They’re all lovely- but it would be Midnight and Rambling Rose for me to warm up a cool summer’s evening.
I absolutely love the pink and silver. What a beautiful shawl.
My choice would be Hyssop and Fuchsia-what a beautiful pattern.
I would love to knit this shawl but maybe too tricky for a first shawl project?! My colour choice would be damson and driftwood :-)
Oak and hyssop would be lovely.
I love a knit on edge. What a gorgeous shawl. I’d do Driftwood and Rambling Rose.
What a beautiful, unique shawl! I love Justyna’s color choices but I would also give “sand and tarn” a try together. Thanks for another great giveaway!
Piccadilly is a beautiful shawl! I’d love it in Tarn and Marigold.
Such a lovely shawl. I’d knit it in Tarn and Marigold.
I’m so smitten with this pattern, the lace border makes it really something special.
The Hayton colours are all beautiful, and while I love combining lots of different colours all at once, I really like using different shades and hues of just one, I’m torn between clematis/damson and dianthus/fuscia…..I’m not sure if the colours we’d like to knit this in have to be from that range, if we can chose others then I’d like to suggest the new Tamar wool by Blacker yarns…together Camel and Tiddy Brook remind me of the soft primroses appearing in the verges around near to where I live.
I’d do Hysop and Marigold.
I was originally drawn to this shawl by the unusual colour combination,but I suspect I will end up making more than one,it is so pretty and so useful,so my second colour choice would be Damson and fuschia,followed by many more I am sure…..
Hyssop and Damson for me – such a lovely combination.
Such a gorgeous shawl! I think I’d try Steel & Hyssop together
The shawl is gorgeous! I’d knit one in tarn and sand for an elegant and understated shawl.
This shawl is gorgeous. Rambling Rose and Clematis would look stunning together.
I would love to knit the Piccadilly shawl in Damson and Hyssop!
What a beautiful shawl – I’m amazed that it’s all knitted, no crochet. I would use Hyssop and Midnight. Thanks for the chance to win.
I’d do it in fuschia and dianthus
The lace is so beautiful and delicate. I think the shawl would look stunning in damson and marigold. Yum!
My favourite colours are Hyssop and Marigold.
Such tough choices … But Dianthus and Hyssop please
I am smitten. Usually, I knit in soft grays,neutrals. But I do love color, especially the combination of Red Kite and Marigold. Lovely, Lovely, pattern and yarn.
The yarn used looks like bands of gold which is wrapped up with rich deep hues of colour.
What a wonderful design! I could easily imagine knitting this shawl in Hyssop and Dyanthus.
I adore the black magic rose & steel…muy bonita
What an outstandingly BEAUTIFUL shawl. It would be great in many colour combinations. CONGRATULATIONS to the designer.
What a choice, but I think Charcoal and Steel would look good (neutral but classy).
I’d go for Charcoal and Steel (neutral but classy).
Dianthus and Black Magic Rose for me. I can see it done in lighter colors though, and maybe with a blue…
I would love to try Marigold and Damson or Black Magic Rose and Driftwood. It’s a stunning pattern and the yarn colours and beautiful.
So many lovely possible colour combinations, I am heading towards Tarn and Stone.
I think I would chose driftwood and hyssop
Hi, I love the original in Marigold and Red Kite. It makes me think of Morocco!
Although all Eden Cottage Yarns are sublimely beautiful… maybe also Damson and Marigold?
I have to think outside the box cause it would be a perfect present for my sisters in laws 60th so Black Magic Rose & Driftwood would be her colours – love the pattern
If I can dream, it will be Hyssop and Marigold…thank you for this rainbow in lace!
Decisions, decisions, midnight and twig would be my choice. Lovely pattern.
I’m thinking rambling rose and dianthus.
All beautiful colours but i would choose Driftwood and Red kite
All beautiful colours but I would choose Charcoal and Red kite
Gorgeous pattern – I’d love to knit it in Madeline Tosh’s ‘Mo Light’ yarn (which, despite other temptations, is the one I always go back to), colour choice Olivia + Prairie fire: something to really make your eyeballs dance..
Hyssop and Steel for me.
Heaps of colour combinations but I would like to see this knitted in Tarn and Stone.
Such a hard choice! But I think I’d stick with the original colors. They have such a regal feel!
I think the same colours used as in the sample on the model is just fab, so I’d use that combination if I could knit one!
Hyssop and midnight would work for me.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Love the Marigold and Red Kite combo!
I would love to knit up the pattern in the same colors as modeled.
Love the Midnight & marigold x
Well, this is tough. Fuscia and Tarn seem rather interesting or Midnight and Clematis. Really lovely colors.
Tarn and Steel for me! Beautiful design…..
Black magic rose & hyssop to look like a country garden. What a beautiful shawl!!
Tarn and Marigold – lovely!
I would love to make this beautiful shawl in tarn and steel :-)
I clicked on the link to Justnya’s testers and immediately Chilly1’s beautiful cream and blue shawl leaped off the page. Calm and clear and made me think of the seaside.
Hmm, Dianthus and Tarn I think. I’m in a bit of a pink & blue phase!
Wow what a beautiful shawl and wonderful design, if I had a chance to make it I would choose, midnight and tarn from Eden Cottage Hayton.
Hyssop and Dianthus for me. Gorgeous summery shades. In that oh-so-pretty shawl, they make me think of lazing in the garden on a balmy summer’s afternoon, listening to the breeze and smelling the flowers.
Lovely pattern. For I choose Black Magic Rose and Driftwook. Thank you.
Lovely shawl. I think I would make it in Black Magic Rose and Rambling Rose.
Your color usage of the fabulous yarn is so exciting.
I also love the usage of stitches to create an outstanding looking shawl!
I would go for Coal with Damson or Fuschia for the lace border and picots.
wow! hard choice to make…. probably Dianthus and Damson..
Oh I’d do it in the modeled colours!
Fushia and midnight would be my pick for this beautiful shawl, it’s stunning
Such a lovely design! I like the original colors but would be seriously tempted by Hissop and Clematis.
Black Magic Rose and Driftwood! Think about it! I can’t stop!
Hyssop and Rambling Rose would be my ideal of the perfect matching for such a lovely shawl.
I would love to make this using TML in fog and coquette! What a gorgeous & feminine shawl!
Damson and Hyssop would look great together I think
What a beautiful, delicate and feminine shawl. What a lovely combination of stitches. I’m dreaming of this in a combination of Damson and Marigold.
I just love the Red Kite and the Marigold. Thanks for the giveaway.
Looking at all the gorgeous colours, Midnight & Marigild would be my choice – night & day in one lovely pattern!
I would like to try Hyssop and Midnight together – lovely pattern
I love the red kit and marigold, too…but a dark grey and deep purple shawl
would totally be the ticket, too!
Midnight and fuchsia seems to be a nice combination.I love the pattern BTW
Beautiful pattern, I’m thinking Damson and Rambling Rose for when I’m feeling cool and moody.
Beautiful shawl, I’m thinking I’d like to knit it in Damson and Rambling Rose, for when I’m feeling cool and moody.
Damson & Dianthus for me, myself and I !!!
Damson & Dianthus for me, myself and I !!!
I just adore the Marigold and Red Kite. I am obsessed with yellows at the moment so this design in these colours just hit the spot!!
Stunning shawl….so difficult to choose colours……think it has to be midnight and steel
Lovely shawl! I would want to use Midnight and Driftwood for mine!
Beautiful shawl but just struggling with flower border. Can anyone help me?
Hi Elspeth,
Sorry to hear you’re struggling, what seems to be the issue? It might be easier to email the shop so we can have a problem solve together – shop@loopknitting.com
Loop x