The Farmer's Wife Shawl

I made this to be a work shawl, not a fancy shawl. It's just perfect! Now that it's off the needles and I can try it on, I find that it sits so well on the shoulders and Does Not Slide Off. That's so important in a shawl you want to work in! The nape of the neck and around the neck sit well and keep the shawl balanced on the shoulders.

I wanted a shawl I could go tend to chickens in, or weed in the garden in, or cut flowers in -- during autumn when it's cool outside. This is a no-nonsense shawl that covers you where you want to be covered, but doesn't flap around your body like a big skirt.

The front can cross across the chest, and the two points can then go 'round the waist and very nearly tie in a knot in the small of the back. It will do this better after it's stretched out some. But for now I don't know that I need it to do that; it sits on the shoulders so securely, I may just add a small button on the front and wear it as a v-neck. A button could attach at any point on the opposite side -- just pick a knit hole!

I ran out of the gray yarn, sadly, so I had to find a yarn to finish off just the last six rows or so. I wanted a wool yarn that would match the gray and complement it. I pulled out my limited supply of wool yarn. (I usually use acrylic.)

Julia is my fashion consultant on all things. She declared a definite "No!" to the orangey variegated yarn on the left, and to the sage green. 

Two no-no's

The pink variegated was a possibility. Julia thought maybe the red (it's a deep, real red) might look nice. Or not. We were iffy on these two.

I got down to the end of the wire on my gray yarn. Uh oh.

I found a partial skein that is mostly wool -- a blend. But I felt it looked nice with the gray.

It's a Lion Brand yarn. The color is "Strawberry Fields." See how it is with the gray?

It looks very gray/brown/earthy tones. But the tricky thing about variegated yarn is that when you start using it, you never know what color might come out of the innards of that skein, y'know?

Somehow I ended up with a lot of yellow and pink! Ah well. It looks pretty good.

I'm pleased. Not too many errors in the work, and it turned out to be what I wanted it to be. And it was a fairly fast project. Although, as I admitted before, I was doing lots of "stress knitting" there at the end, and when I stress-knit, I knit fast. Not too good for the hands, but good for finishing things!

To download this free pattern at Ravelry, click here.