The Impsy Pimpsy Shawl

People often ask me how long I've been knitting and many are surprised to find that it's only been a couple of years. Many non-knitters are daunted by such a craft that seems almost a hidden language and culture that requires special initiation into before the special knowledge is aqcquired the title of 'Knitter' is granted. But this is not so. ANYONE can learn to knit, and when they do they fall in love with a gentle, meditative craft that entrenches itself deep into our mama bones, that nestles deep down into our mother-hen brain which finds great satisfaction in warming and clucking over those we love. Can there be a more homely sight than finding your mama by the fire knitting you a sweater? For me, that just about sums 'home' up.



People email me all the time asking about how to go about learning to knit. I answered some of the questions in my 'about' page here.



I also get emails, especially through Ravelry, asking if my patterns can be used as part of a beginners knitting class. The two-needle hat pattern is constantly being asked for, and the responses from the classes are good - complete and utter novices who have never knit a thing in their life have, by the end of learning a couple of basic stitches, knit a whole damn HAT, placed it on their babes head and felt that first flush of mama hen when they see their loved ones warmed by something they have made. There really is not a feeling like it. Perhaps the equivalent for men might be coming home and slamming down a freshly speared antelope on the floor and saying 'tonight we eat!'.

I certainly remember the first time I felt that flush of pride after a day of hammering out that first pattern of mine and seeing my babes wear the result - which although simple was actually a major accomplishment at the time! And I love to think that by giving people the pattern that they too can warm their babes.

Generally, as a rule, I allow people to use my patterns for classes with the only restriction being they don't *sell* the pattern and give me full credit.

And with all that said let me introduce you to my new shawl, and the free pattern for you, to go with it. Again, free for personal use, not for sale, classes permitted but with full credit given to me, please!

This shawl was envisaged a couple weeks back when I went through a streak of feeling intensely cold to my core, and even though I was actually 'warm' with several layers of wool, gators, shawls and even scarf, I couldn't shake a deep shiver. Looking back it was more likely the result of shock from hearing some bad news, but what I wanted was a really soft, extra warm, large shawl that I could wrap around and cocoon myself in like a pair of wings and warm my back, chest, neck and bury my nose into aswell and feel hugged.



After hunting around for a suitable pattern I decided that I just wanted a really simple knit, nothing fancy or clever, just something that gave full attention to the yarn and function of the shawl. So I constructed my own pattern.

The yarn was a mixture of Noro Silk Garden and other yarns from my stash. Most of the yarn has kid mohair in and this has resulted in a super snuggly shawl which warms like nothing else. When I'm not wearing it as a shawl then it's wrapped around like a cowl, or over my babes as a blanket. It's one of those go-to must-have wears for this weather.
When I can afford to buy a whole stash of Noro then I can certainly see another one of these in my future insha'allah, and I do think this would make an excellent gift for Mother's day too.





So there you have it - a really simple shawl. So easy. In fact, it's impsy pimpsy so why not have a go?

copy/paste
<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1K3bW1WV4beqiMa0hlenQiHoBJJ5FLVRRv8oyUa20PEM"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5293/5483006489_e9e42a5686_m.jpg" /></a><br />



Feel free to add the badge, link back another way or find the tutorial over on the tutorial page. I'll also be adding it to Ravelry too insha'allah.

Enjoy! And let me know what you think!


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