I’ve found myself looking for comforting projects lately, and I kept thinking about how much I enjoyed knitting the simple, repetitive shawl I designed with that first heavy laceweight yarn. And about how wearing it felt like a giant hug. It was those emotions I wanted to re-create with this project, so it felt right to go back to the laceweight while experimenting with marling and proportions. From an aesthetic point of view, I began the centre of the shawl thinking of an idea I’d played with for one of my Follow Your Arrow mystery shawls. As I was knitting a simple triangle for the centre I was reading a book, Lab Girl, which involves a great deal of digging deep holes and closely examining the layers of dirt. It’s a beautiful, lyrical book and somehow the imagery of those uneven layers seeped into my knitting as I read. The result is a shawl that makes the most of the simplest of stitches to highlight the subtle, natural beauty of the yarn. I hope you find it as comforting to knit and wrap up in as I did.

Yarn
1090 yds / 1000m of heavy lace weight with good drape.
Shown in Blend no.1 Laceweight marl set:
820 yds / 750m of MC and 275 yds / 250m of a subtle CC.

Needles
US 5 / 3.75mm 32” / 80cm or longer circular

Gauge
22 sts and 32 rows = 4” / 10 cm in st st blocked aggressively

Sizing
Finished length at top: 100” / 254cm
Finished depth at widest point: 24” / 61cm