This is a highly modified version of the beautiful Morvarch pattern. I wanted to make a shawl inspired by those worn by characters in the Wheel of Time series. In the books, shawls are a symbol of the Aes Sedai, a group of very powerful women who have the ability to channel (do magic basically). The Aes Sedai organize themselves into 7 different groups based on personality and approach to magic and each group is represented by a color. They wear distinctive shawls with fringe in the color of their group to let the world know they are Aes Sedai and which group (ajah) they belong to.

In addition to the fringe the shawls are often described as being heavily embroidered and covered with vines and/or flowers. The only other requirement to make them Aes Sedai shawls, though, is the symbol of the Aes Sedai at the center of the back. The symbol is a white teardrop shape, basically one half of the yin yang symbol but without the black dot in it.

I wanted to make something that contained the required elements to be an Aes Sedai shawl, but that was also something I could wear every day and not something that felt like a costume. The ajah that I most closely identify with is white (they represent reason, logic and the pursuit of truth) so that made it easier to fulfill without needing to worry about any color work. I picked Morvarch as a starting point because I love the intricate Celtic cables and even though the Wheel of Time draws on inspiration from a lot of cultures all over the world I still liked that they have a very high fantasy look to me.

I started with a teardrop shape knitted in the round and made from working spiraling increases. (I plan to write up how I made this shape soon as I haven’t seen it anywhere else.) Then I switched to a modified version of the center cables from Morvarch. It wasn’t too difficult to modify the construction to make a triangular shawl instead of a rectangle. And then I added another, mirrored set of the side cables down the sides of the triangle.