Serendipitous Soul Shawl

It's fitting to follow my post about the grief/arts workshop with photos of the shawl I started a few days before the workshop and completed a few days after. Remember, I have a zillion projects on the needles, finished ones awaiting final touches, etc. And I was in the midst of dealing with all the things I needed to get done for the workshop - including my opening presentation.

And I started a new shawl.

Actually, it started itself. I had woven a triangle on my Hazel Rose 12" loom and was curious to see if I could pick up stitches around the shorter edges and how it would look if I knit from the woven tri. I was very pleased with how it looked and kept on knitting, doing 4 increases every other row. The increases were: 1 at 3 stitches from each end and one at about 1/4 stitches from each end, much the same increase pattern as the Isis shawl (which is what I call Jane Campbell's As You Like It Wrap.)



I also began to change yarns, vary the stitches, in a freeform, unplanned way. And the shawl that grew thrilled me - I worked in a way I've longed to work, in colors that resonate in my soul. And in it is the energy of the workshop, working on the shawl relieved much of the stress of that last week and after, gave me real pleasure and satisfaction, helped me recuperate from the physical and emotional exhaustion.

The particulars:
Yarns are cotton/rayon/silk/soysilk - so it's a nice light weight for spring/summer. I used:
Classic Elite Fame (in 2 different colorways, the original woven tri was in this yarn), Rowan Summer Tweed, SWTC Oasis (in Napa, a multicolor and a solid purple).

#9 needles

Stitches varied between stockinette, seed, reverse stockinette, garter.

I crocheted the front and neck edge with Rowan Summer Tweed green, a row uneven and randomly switching between single, half-double and double stitches.

The bottom border edging was a bobble edging that I found in one of Nikki Epstein's books and I can't find again! This was the first time I've ever knitted bobbles and I loved the playful, whimsical look it gives the edge of this shawl.

I put a knitted leaf at the apex of the tri - only partly because I thought it looked a little messy at that spot (I've since figured out the best way to pick up stitches and deal with that angle, a yarn over on either side of the center stitch does the trick.)

and I added a little lizard charm:
Finally, I put a leaf at each end of the shawl.

The leaves are done in Rowan Summer Tweed. I made two for each leaf and sewed them together, as stockinette leaves tend to curl under.

And there you go, my Serendipitous Soul Shawl which comforted and taught me some things and which I have been wearing as often as possible!

Namaste,
Zann