I cast on this little blue shawl while traveling to Cape Cod from Central NJ. I finished it on the porch of our vacation apt. and wore it over my shoulders on the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. Many of the women on the ferry exclaimed over it’s simplicity and sweet good looks. They all wanted to see and touch it, I had to pass it around over several rows of ferry riders! I got so many compliments that I thought, I just have to publish this pattern. The second blue one, the pointed one, was done second, the third one was done in pink, for my sister who likes wearing pink.

I blame my sister’s pink preference and my preference for blue, on my mother. You see my sister was fair haired with blue eyes so mother always dressed her in blue. I was fair skinned with almost black hair and dark eyes, so of course mother dressed me in pink. To this day, I seldom wear pink. I swear, too much of the pink makes my teeth hurt. Funny, how we always want what is unattainable as a child and how it effects our preferences as adults. The model’s shirt print shows through the shawl in this picture which lets you see how light and ethereal the shawl is but, IMHO, detracts from the pretty shawl.

This shawl is easy to work on while other things are going on around you. I’d call it a good, ‘social knit,’ as pleasant conversation or uncomplicated child watching is well possible while working on it’s plain garter stitch rows. It’s also a great a confidence building first shawl for the newbie knitter. With the, all in garter stitch piece, and just easy increases and instructions for all the techniques in the Key (you’ll also find a few instructional videos and links, you can do this).

I used an alpaca lace-weight yarn and a larger than called for knitting needle to give it a lovely open ethereal look. The end product, while obviously not very complex to work, is very feminine, innocent and sweet. The pattern produces a sweet, small shallow, or large and deep, shawl depending on how far you want to continue to knit. It’s a nice three season, warm everyday shawl to grab and go with or without a coat. I have included links to techniques that might prove a bit challenging for a newbie knitter’s skills, but really it’s not all that difficult.

The second shawl is the same pattern but it was blocked differently. I hung a hanger to weight the point, threading the hook of a hanger once through the body of the shawl to draw it down, as it dried. This more pointed pattern is knit the same way, it just needs this hanger weighted variation to block it. The pink one was not drawn to a point at all, it was hand shaped when I first hung it to encourage it to dry in a rounded edge.