December in Thailand is one of the only times that the temperatures cool and the humidity drops. The stars can be seen clearly at night and the sea takes on its special once-in-a-year appearance as well. We come to appreciate this very brief respite from the heat - that’s gone all too soon.

This heart-shaped shawl was knit with a hand-dyed machine-wash wool yarn in sock (fingering) weight, on 3.25 needles. It’s knit flat on an 80cm (30 inch) circular to accommodate the growing number of stitches.

The basic stitches are an Estonian asynchronous lace stitch for the starry background and a dainty eyelet chevron for the sea’s waves.

I used a blue, violet, and plum variegated fingering weight yarn I found on eBay (about 600 yards/545-550 meters of hand-dyed superwash wool sock yarn).

Optional Beads
Row 111: (K1, YO) 2 times; K1, (SSK, K1, YO, K1, YO, K1, K2tog, K1) 20 times; YO, K1, YO, K1, (SSK, K1, YO, K1, YO, K1, K2tog, K1) 20 times; (YO, K1) twice (333 stitches)

K1 place a bead on this stitch and then knit the stitch

You’ll need a total of 40 6mm beads - I used round wooden beads, but any round bead that can easily be seen against the background would work.

Variation (31 March 2015):
I had 50g each of Manos Silk Blend in purple and Artesano British Wool in bluebell and wanted to combine them into an accessory I could make with this amount of yarn (using 4mm/US 6 needles).

The result is a bandana-type heart-shaped scarf that measures 15 inches (38cm) from the center of the top to the bottom point; 23 inches (58.5cm) wide at the widest point; and 35 inches (89cm) around the top/neck line.

The only changes are to use 100g of DK yarn, knit with US 6/4mm needles, and to knit through Row 82, before the picot bind-off.