3-Square Silk Garden Shawl

It is cold and gray today in Indiana. I haven't had much opportunity or even the will to update my blog here for nearly a month. The situation with my mother has continued to be difficult and depressing, though certainly nothing that an enormous number of other people don't experience as life cycles spiral on.

As always, during such times, I am grateful for knitting and spinning. What a blessing to have the ability to occupy my hands and mind in these soothing and rhythmic acts, acts that connect me with the earth through the fibers, grounding me, and with a community of knitters and spinners that stretches back through history, assuring me I am not alone. I doubt there's much I can say to add to the body of writing that's out there now on the meditative and spiritual rewards of fiber work. Just sending my gratitude out into the universe....

My creative concerns and doings over the last month: I've made more of the beautiful ribbed scarves using 2 different colors of Kureyon and Silk Garden. I've also begun to explore what I can do with very simple knitted shapes - specifically right now The Square. I'm continuing to play with Noro yarns.

I finished this shawl just this morning. It didn't take me very long at all - perhaps a week all together. It is made of 3 squares of Silk Garden #34, a colorway that makes me think of lichens. I used #13 needles and size G crochet hook for the edging.

Each square is garter stitch and made of 2 balls. I started with 1 stitch and increased 2st (1 at the beginning and one at the end) every other row until I had 71 stitches and had used almost 1 ball. I then started another ball and started decreasing 2st every other row.




After sewing together the squares,
I did a single crochet edging around the neck and front edges and a crocheted shell-type of edging all around for the bottom edge. I think a knitted, ruffly lichen-like edging might look good, but I was in a hurry to finish this so I could wear it today to church, so I went with the crochet.

I'm pleased to say my shawl was welcomed and made to feel very good about itself! And me, too.