We didn’t need another cat. We already had two, both of whom were rescues, but sometimes, fate has its own ideas. I wandered onto a local cat rescue’s Facebook page in February 2016, and there she was:
Nutmeg. The rescue group, CatNap Society, had trapped Nutmeg from the wild when she was about seven weeks old. The rescuers promptly discovered Nutmeg was a very sick kitten, and she spent her first week as a house cat in a local veterinary hospital where she was treated for pneumonia. Most animal rescues run on a very tight budget and adoption fees rarely cover the costs of a regular rescue, let alone the rescue of a very sick kitten. Therefore, proceeds from the sale of this shawl pattern will be donated to the Catnap Society as a way of saying thank you for the very important work they do for feral and unwanted cats in the central Vancouver Island area.

Nutmeg is a year old now, and despite the permanent damage done to her lungs, she is rambunctious and playful. She is still spooky at times, no doubt due to her rough start in life, and is a tiny thing in comparison to our other cats. But, she is a real joy and we (my husband and I) are so thankful she was given a second chance by Catnap.

The Nutmeg shawl is crescent-shaped and worked from the top down. The shawl body features a twisted stitch pattern, and the ruffled border uses a knot-like textured stitch. Instructions are provided for working the twists both with and without a cable needle, and the pattern contains both charted and writtne instructions.

The sample shawl was knit with Crooked Kitchen Yarn’s Mericash 78/12/10 (colourway: Inky Sandy Mink) and was edged with a bit of Hedgehog Fiber’s Sock (colourway: Spell). The sample shawl measures 82” along the straight edge, 104” along the curved edge, and is 18” deep (208 x 264 x 46 cm).

Skill Level
Intermediate

Sizes
Small Shawl
Large Shawl

Tools and Materials
Yarn Requirements

• Small Shawl: 425-475 yards/ 388-433 meters of sport weight yarn
• Large Shawl: 600-650 yards/548-594 meters of sport weight yarn

Optional: Secondary colour for bind-off edge: 60 yards/54 meters of heavy fingering/sport weight yarn

Needles

• 3.5 mm (US 4) knitting needles, straight (at least 14” long/35 cm) or circular
• 4 mm (US 6) knitting needles, straight (at least 14” long/ 35 cm) or circular

Notions

• pins, wires, and a mat for blocking
• tapestry needle for weaving in the ends
• optional: 2 st markers for marking edge/increase sts
• optional: cable needle for working the twists

This pattern was tech edited by Kathy Berkel. Many thanks to the wonderful testers of this pattern!