New Shawl Pattern

Once upon a time I had an idea for a giant worsted weight shawl using the natural shades of the Au Naturel wool/alpaca blend that I had blended at the mill not far from where I live.  I knew I wanted to pull inspiration from the gansey-style sweaters that I adore so much and so I set about creating a shawl that incorporates different stitch patterns/aspects from those sweaters but with a feminine touch to it.

After pouring over book after book and chart after chart and tweaking this and that and crunching number after number, I came up with this.

 

The shawl did not take all that long to knit either - I was pretty monogamous with it and wanted to make sure the numbers and pattern repeats worked and there were adjustments/ripping things out but it worked out in the end and I am rather happy with it. Little man and I took it to the Enabling Garden close to our hose for the photoshoot and then went on a FoggRun afterward. Here's the kicker - I still haven't released the pattern because I haven't been able to come up with a name. It's terrible, I know. The shawl though, is fabulous - it is giant and squishy and so warm. We took it with us over New Year's to Chicago and I used it as a lap blanket in the car and in the hotel and Adam's Grandma J used it as a lap blanket at his Aunt A's house... I adore it and am thinking about knitting another in a solid color (dark gray maybe) and possibly seeing what a smaller DK version would look like. Perhaps it's a good thing I haven't released the pattern yet ;) 

 Here are some of the flowers and things we saw in the garden and on our outing.