Do you want a little Preview?

I was going to tell you about the socks today, but, I changed my mind.  I want to tell you about something else instead.  :)

Technically this is a preview, but, as I happen to know that Knotions does a "soft launch" the day before the issue officially goes live, I am pretty safe in sharing all of this.

Every now and then, between jags of knitting large fairly simply projects, socks and large very complicated projects I want to knit something somewhere in between.  My fingers crave soft squishy yarn and even softer stitch patterns.  My mind wants something easy enough to memorize, but pretty and a little more complex than plain knitting.

I was explaining that to my kids one day and one of them chorused in with "you're looking for mashed potatoes and gravy....comfort food."  And they were right.  That was exactly what I was looking for.  Something soft and warm, but not completely bland.

Something I could cuddle up in on a cold winter day, with hot cocoa and a book to read.

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.”

Alice, Through the Looking Glass, Chapter 1 Looking-Glass House, Lewis Carroll.

 

If you live in the Mid-West you might have seen these strange fences appearing along the edges of fields during the late fall.  At first they seem to have no purpose, other than to just be there, but as winter unfolds and snow starts to drift across those fields, unfortunately usually then right across the roadways, their purpose becomes clear as the openings in them clog with snow and prevent the drifts from intruding onto the roads.  I have a similar shaped fence around a deck in my garden, put up when I needed to keep little people far away from a hot barbecue on summers days.

Cashmere yarn is awfully soft and squishy, so I cast on in a pale silvery grey, envisioning moonlight on the snow that coats the fences, trees and bushes during a winter night.  Although any heavy lace or light fingering weight yarn will do just fine.

Touches of lace for the border, like the melting icicles when the sun comes out and we have a snowy winter day all packaged up in one shawl. 

Once it is finished, like the snow loving the trees, it can cover you up snug until summer comes again. (Or Autumn...)

This pattern is available to you free from Knotions, where you can also find photo tutorials for all the techniques used.