This select pattern is included in the Indie Design Gift-A-Long! Come join us at http://www.ravelry.com/groups/indie-design-gift-a-long for all the inspiration, chat and cheer you’ll need to get your gifts finished this year. My gift to you is a 25% discount on this pattern when you use the coupon code “giftalong2019” from Nov 26, 2019 at 8:00 pm US EST to Dec 2, 2019 at 11:59pm US EST.

Leola is a lacy shawl or wrap with a unique design. It’s knit in panels, bottom-up, but still in one piece. Starting at the bottom right corner, each panel is knit with decreases after every so many rows. Then the stitches along the side of the just knit panel are picked up and a few rows of garter stitch are knit. The next panel is formed by casting new stitches on along the bottom of the piece. As it gets knit up, each first knit and last purl stitch of the panel is knit together with a stitch from the garter stitch rows. In this way the panels are nicely joined together. Once the last panel is knit, the remaining top stitches are placed on the working needle and the top half circle is knit.

This is a fun shawl to knit without having hundreds of stitches on the needles. The rows are short, except for the 5 garter stitch rows in between the panels. As each panel is knit, it seems to go quicker and quicker, because the rows keep getting shorter.

Leola is a fun knit with a single color lace weight yarn. She becomes even more interesting when using a colorful yarn with long color repeats, or two different colors together, or even with a smooth and a ‘mohair’ type of yarn together.
The 4-ply version of this same shawl has been added to the pattern as an extra download. It is, in general, the same pattern but with fewer repeats, which of course is compensated by the thicker yarn. The finished size will about the same as the lace 2 ply shawl.

Blocked Size: 152cm (60 in) across the top and 65 cm (25.5 in) deep in the middle

The pattern is a 12 page pattern, the first 8 pages are the written instructions, the last 4 pages are charts.

And now for the story behind the name and the link to the name of the pattern Leola.

Many years ago a young teenage girl (Leola) and 3 boyfriends (2 of which were my uncles) were gunned down and thrown into a quick racing river where the teens were hanging out. A fifth boyfriend managed to escape unharmed, but he witnessed it all.
In the sleepless nights that followed, my grandmother started knitting a baptism gown. At that time, only my father and one of his sisters were married, and there were no grandchildren. That baptism gown was worn by my siblings, many of my cousins, and now my daughters and their cousins have worn it. I’ve designed this shawl (or wrap) to match the baptism gown.