Hi, its me Abelene,

There is a long story behind these two modest shawls. It began with Jen slipping in the gravel coming down the ridge road on a steep section right near home, sometime in the beginning of September. After tearing her knee up something awful and feeling very humbled by the situation, a strange determination overtook her. She decided that she didn’t want to walk up the ridge for a time—or forever (unrealistic in her injury)—and instead wanted to fix up her old knitting trail down by the tiny house again, in the deeper, darker, more densely wooded haven.

However, as that would take a LOT of work and energy she didn’t really have, so she decided to at least design some shawls instead. Simple knits that could be worked while walking the old trail she once had, before the indifferent wild took over with loggers, fallen trees, brambles, and all manner of unkindness to a soul.

So these are the two shawls. Instead of coming up with a new design release, she decided to quietly slip them in under the radar, without fanfare, into her pattern collection A Drawer Full of Winter. These, of course, are the prototypes for “A Drawer Full of Shawls” pattern Jen just added to it.

You can make a third variation by mixing up the increases as I have done, such as eyelet increases on the borders and solid down the center. I’ve written a Pattern Play and Gauge Substitution chart at the end for ideas to mix it up with your favorites from your stash. One shawl many ways — soon you’ll have a drawer full of them!

That is the update here in the perpetual wild beneath the tall trees, humbled by the months and years, the roaring quietude, and still making appearances, in spite of ourselves!

Ta ta,
Abelene

♣ Jen’s Techy Pattern info ♣

This classic shawl shape in stockinette stitch can be knit with solid increases for a staid & sturdy layer the wind won’t blow through or with light and airy classic eyelet increases appropriate all year round (( Shown in size 1 & 2)). Written in a modern “knit-to-exit” framework, it is beautifully customizable. You can easily test the shape by working the body increases with a mini-swatch before working the finishing border.

From fingering yarn or handspun, from cobweb lace to worsted– the framework lets you begin the finishing rows at any time and bind off with perfectly balanced proportions. You can make a third variation by mixing up the increases as I have done, such as eyelet increases on the borders and solid down the center. One shawl many ways — soon you’ll have a drawer full of them!