Space Rainbows: A Complete Guide to Emily Stamets’ Stunning Knit Pattern
If you’ve spent any time in the knitting community lately, chances are you’ve come across the dreamy, otherworldly aesthetic of the Space Rainbows pattern by Emily Stamets. Whether you stumbled upon it on Ravelry, saw it drifting across your Instagram feed, or heard fellow knitters raving about it at your local yarn shop, this pattern has captured the imagination of crafters around the world — and for very good reason. Today we’re diving deep into everything you need to know about Space Rainbows: what makes it special, how to approach it, tips for success, yarn recommendations, and why this might just be your next favorite project.
What Is the Space Rainbows Pattern?
Space Rainbows is a knitting pattern designed by Emily Stamets, a beloved figure in the indie knitting design world. Known for her thoughtful construction, playful use of color, and accessible-yet-interesting stitch work, Emily has built a devoted following among knitters who want projects that feel genuinely exciting from cast-on to bind-off.
The Space Rainbows pattern is a shawl design that leans fully into the magic of gradients and color play. As the name suggests, the finished object has an ethereal, cosmic quality — soft arcs of color that feel like something you’d see at the edge of a nebula rather than in an ordinary rain shower. It’s the kind of piece that drapes over your shoulders and makes people stop and ask, “Where did you get that?” And of course the answer, delivered with quiet pride, is: “I made it.”
The pattern is available for purchase and download on Ravelry and through Emily Stamets’ design pages, making it easy to access from virtually anywhere in the world.
Who Is Emily Stamets?
Emily Stamets is an independent knitwear designer whose work occupies a sweet spot between wearable and whimsical. Her patterns tend to have strong visual impact while remaining approachable for knitters who are past the beginner stage but not necessarily seasoned technique collectors. She has a gift for taking a concept — in this case, the visual drama of a rainbow set against a night sky — and translating it into something that lives beautifully in fiber.
Stamets’ designs frequently feature shawls and accessories, and she has an instinct for shapes that flatter and drape well. Her use of color is one of her most distinctive signatures: she doesn’t shy away from bold palettes, but she knows how to deploy them in a way that feels cohesive rather than chaotic. Space Rainbows is perhaps the purest expression of that sensibility.
Her patterns are well-written, with clear instructions and helpful notes that make the experience of knitting them genuinely enjoyable. Knitters consistently praise her for writing patterns that anticipate common questions and explain the reasoning behind construction choices — something that matters enormously when you’re working through a new technique or an unfamiliar shaping method.
The Design: What to Expect
At its heart, Space Rainbows is a celebration of color gradients. The shawl is constructed to showcase the transition between colors in a way that mimics the gentle arc of a rainbow — but filtered through the cool, infinite darkness of outer space. Think deep indigos and violets giving way to electric blues, teals, warm greens, and finally brighter, lighter hues. Or reverse the palette entirely for a different cosmic effect.
The construction is generally worked top-down or with a straightforward increase sequence that allows the color transitions to show themselves gradually and naturally as you knit. This means the sense of discovery is built into the process: every few rows, your project looks slightly different than it did before, and watching those color shifts emerge from your needles is one of the genuine pleasures of working this pattern.
The stitch pattern itself is designed to be a canvas for the yarn, which means it tends toward the relatively clean and simple — allowing the gradient to do the heavy lifting visually without competing stitch texture muddying the color story. That said, there is enough technical interest in the construction to keep experienced knitters engaged throughout.
Choosing Your Yarn: The Most Important Decision You’ll Make
With a pattern like Space Rainbows, yarn selection isn’t just an important decision — it is arguably the most expressive creative choice you have. The pattern was designed with gradient yarns, sets of mini skeins, or carefully curated color progressions in mind. Here’s how to think through your options.
Gradient Skeins
A single, long-repeat gradient skein can work beautifully here if it has enough yardage and color range. Look for skeins that move through at least three distinct color families, ideally with good contrast between the darkest and lightest points. Indie dyers who specialize in gradients — think studios like Hedgehog Fibres, Spincycle Yarns, Madelinetosh, or Freia Fine Handpaints — are natural first choices for this kind of project.
Mini Skein Sets
One of the most popular approaches to Space Rainbows is to use a curated mini skein set. Many indie dyers release these specifically for shawl projects, offering five to ten small skeins that have been dyed to transition smoothly from one color to the next. Mini skein sets give you maximum control over the color story and tend to produce the crispest, most intentional gradient effect.
When shopping for mini skeins, pay attention to the total yardage across the set and make sure it meets the pattern’s requirements. Also consider the order in which you’ll knit the colors: dark to light? Light to dark? Starting in the middle and moving outward? Each approach produces a completely different finished object.
Coordinated Solids
A more unexpected but equally valid approach is to use several coordinating solid-colored skeins and create your own gradient by switching between them at regular intervals. This gives you full creative control and can be a great way to use up partial skeins from your stash. The transitions will be sharper than with a true gradient, but that graphic quality can look stunning in its own right — think bold bands of color rather than a soft atmospheric blur.
Fiber Content
For drape and wearability, a blend that includes some silk or bamboo alongside wool or alpaca will help the shawl hang beautifully and let the colors catch the light. Pure merino is always a reliable choice for softness and stitch definition. If you’re knitting for someone with a wool sensitivity, a plant-based or plant-blend yarn in a fingering weight can also work, though you may notice a slightly different drape.
Weight
The pattern typically calls for fingering weight yarn, which is the ideal weight for a shawl of this style. It gives you enough fabric for a generous, wrapable piece without being so heavy that it becomes stiff or unwieldy. If you’re tempted to size up to a sport weight, check the pattern notes first — you may need to adjust yardage expectations and needle size accordingly.
Needle Size and Gauge
As with any shawl pattern, gauge is important but not in the same rigid way it would be for a fitted garment. You want your fabric to have an open, drapey hand rather than being dense and stiff, so don’t be afraid to go up a needle size or two from what the label recommends if your fabric feels boardy.
Emily Stamets typically provides both a needle size suggestion and a gauge swatch recommendation in her patterns. It’s worth taking the time to do a swatch — not obsessively, but just enough to confirm that your fabric has the right feel. Knit a small square, bind it off loosely, wet-block it, and let it dry flat. Then hold it up, feel how it moves, and decide if you want to adjust before you commit to the full project.
Many knitters find that going up half a size or a full size from the suggested needle creates a more floaty, ethereal fabric that suits the cosmic theme of the design. Trust your instincts here.
Tips for Knitting Success
Read the Pattern Fully Before You Start
This sounds like advice you’ve heard a hundred times, and it is — because it works. Reading through the entire pattern before you cast on means you won’t be surprised by a technique or construction detail when you’re already deep into the project. It also helps you understand the big picture so that individual instructions make more sense in context.
Use Stitch Markers Generously
Shawl constructions often involve increase points that repeat at regular intervals, and keeping track of those with well-placed stitch markers makes the knitting feel effortless rather than effortful. Use a distinct marker for the center or any anchor point, and matching markers for the repeat increases on either side.
Plan Your Color Transitions
Before you begin, lay out your mini skeins or gradient sections in order and take a photo. This gives you a reference point and also lets you reconsider the order if something doesn’t look quite right. Some knitters like to wind their mini skeins into cakes before starting so they can see exactly how much of each color they have.
Embrace Imperfection in the Transitions
One of the beautiful things about gradient knitting is that slight irregularities in color transition actually add to the organic, natural feel of the finished object. If your join from one color to the next isn’t perfectly invisible, or if one color section is slightly longer than another, it often reads as intentional texture in the final piece. Knitting is not machine-made, and that’s entirely the point.
Block It Properly
Blocking a shawl transforms it. What might come off the needles looking a bit ruffled and vague will, after a good soak and blocking session, open up into something with clear stitch definition, beautiful drape, and exactly the dimensions the pattern intends. Soak in cool or lukewarm water with a small amount of wool wash, press out the excess water in a towel, and then pin to your blocking mats. For a shawl like Space Rainbows, you want to gently stretch it to open up the fabric and reveal the full color spectrum.
Project Gallery Inspiration: How Others Are Knitting Space Rainbows
One of the best things you can do before starting any pattern is to spend time in the Ravelry project gallery. For Space Rainbows, the gallery is a treasure trove of inspiration that shows just how differently the same pattern can look depending on the yarn choices made.
You’ll find versions that lean fully into the cool end of the spectrum — midnight blues, silvery teals, and pale lavenders that really do look like something photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Others go warm and bold, with deep oranges shifting into hot pinks and golds, more like a sunset seen from orbit. Some knitters have used high-contrast combinations that create a graphic, almost geometric effect, while others have chosen muted, earthy tones for a more subtle, wearable everyday piece.
Browsing the gallery is also practically useful: you can see how different yarn brands and fiber types affect the drape and overall look, read knitters’ notes about any modifications they made, and get a sense of how the pattern scales and fits on different bodies.
How Space Rainbows Fits Into the Larger World of Modern Knitting
The popularity of Space Rainbows speaks to something larger happening in the knitting world right now. There’s a genuine appetite for projects that feel like creative expression rather than just craft production — pieces that reflect the maker’s personality, that involve meaningful choices about color and material, and that result in something genuinely unique. In a world where fast fashion has made clothing increasingly anonymous and disposable, handknit garments and accessories feel like a deliberate act of individuality.
Emily Stamets understands this appetite intuitively. Her patterns don’t just give you a finished object — they give you an experience of making something that feels personal and considered. The Space Rainbows pattern in particular is structured around the idea of choice: choose your own colors, choose your own palette, and invest that choice with whatever meaning it has for you. Maybe your colorway is inspired by your favorite galaxy image. Maybe it uses the colors of a landscape you love. Maybe it’s just the most beautiful yarn you ever saw and you finally found the right project for it.
That flexibility, combined with clear and thoughtful pattern writing, is exactly why Emily Stamets’ work resonates so broadly. She gives you a structure and then gets out of your way so that the knitting can become yours.
Gifting Space Rainbows
A finished Space Rainbows shawl makes an extraordinary gift. It’s the kind of object that communicates the amount of time, care, and skill that went into it without needing any explanation. Anyone who receives a handknit shawl knows, on some level, that something significant was invested in making it for them.
If you’re knitting it as a gift, consider the recipient’s color preferences carefully. Do they lean cool or warm? Do they wear bold statement pieces or prefer subtle, versatile accessories? A quick look at their wardrobe or a casual question about their favorite colors can give you all the information you need. Since the pattern is so flexible in its color interpretation, you can tailor it completely to the person you have in mind.
Pair the finished shawl with a small card explaining the pattern and the yarn you used — many recipients love knowing the story behind a handmade gift, and it adds an extra layer of meaning to the object.
Final Thoughts: Why You Should Cast On Space Rainbows Today
If you’ve been looking for a project that’s visually stunning, genuinely enjoyable to knit, and flexible enough to reflect your own creative vision, Space Rainbows by Emily Stamets deserves a place at the top of your queue. It combines all the things that make knitting deeply satisfying — beautiful yarn, thoughtful construction, the meditative pleasure of repetitive stitch work, and the ongoing delight of watching a color story unfold row by row — into a single, cohesive project.
Whether you’re an intermediate knitter looking to expand your shawl repertoire or a more experienced crafter wanting a project that showcases an especially precious gradient yarn, this pattern has something to offer you. The community around it is warm and enthusiastic, the pattern itself is well-supported and clearly written, and the finished object is something you will reach for again and again.
So pick your colors, find your gradient, and cast on. Somewhere between the first skein and the last, you might just find yourself knitting something that looks like the universe itself — soft, luminous, and quietly infinite.
