The yarn for this project was sent to me as part of an ongoing adventure in designing for handspun yarn. This blend of Merino and Bluefaced Leicester was spun fairly early in unclerob’s spinning career, and it’s a little “lumpy-bumpy,” thick and thin. This kind of yarn can be absolutely lovely knit up in garter stitch, where the texture of the yarn and the texture of the stitch pattern complement each other beautifully, so garter stitch became the basis for this design.

Constructed with double increases along the border edges that create a wide wingspan, the shawl features a lacy “tail” of a simple mesh stitch pattern. Of course, you could knit this design in commercial yarn, and the simple shape and stitch patterns mean that the shawl could be knit in yarns of different weights and fibres. This pattern might be a fabulous choice for that single skein of hand-painted fingering weight yarn you bought on a whim because you just couldn’t resist the colours.

This is an easy/intermediate project. The techniques you will need to know, or learn, in order to finish the shawl are:

• garter tab cast-on (instructions included in pattern);
• knit;
• yo increase;
• kyok double increase;
• k2tog decrease;
• ssk decrease;
• stretchy bind-off (instructions for the lace bind-off used in the sample are included in the pattern).

Jackson is a tiny community within the municipality of Georgian Bluffs, Grey County, Ontario. Grey County is full of signposts that designate the locations of historic population centres that have now mostly lost their commercial purpose, and have become small residential villages for people who prefer country living.