Kits are often available at Little Skein in the Big Wool.

Avonlea is a generous crescent shawl that brings to life the story of Anne of Green Gables.

Rural Canada at the turn of the 20th century is a far cry from my life today in modern San Francisco. And yet, it’s not so far, not really. Through each adventure, Anne shows me the beauty of the natural world and that it’s enough to just be herself: bookish, sentimental and full-hearted.

The Avonlea design and the yarn dyeing go hand- in-hand, using two skeins that speckle and fade into one another. The color shifting creates a bit of fun to strike the perfect balance between soothing knitting and excitement at seeing the color change.

If you haven’t read Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, or if it’s been a long time since you have, I hope this shawl might encourage you to pick it up again.

Skills needed
Avonlea is an excellent beginner shawl and is likewise entertaining for the intermediate knitter. To knit Avonlea, you should be able to:

• knit and purl
• increase and decrease stitches

Instructions are charted and written, with helpful stitch counts and yarn weights to ensure that you use most of your yarn, without playing yarn chicken.

This pattern has been tech-edited and preview knit.

Yarn choices
As a hand-dyer and designer, I created the yarn for this kit on my Merino Sport base, which is a round and bouncy 3-ply sportweight yarn. If it’s in your yarn budget, I’d love to dye a set for you. Kits are at littleskein.com.

If you are working from stash or a smaller budget, here are some excellent 100% wool substitutions:

$$$
Malabrigo Arroyo

$
Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Sport yarn