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Ancient Spirals Shawl
This shawl is a classic feminine light and floaty crescent shawl, packed with different textures as you work through your yarn colours, creating sections of lace and knit & purl patterning, some relaxing garter stitch thrown in here and there, so there is always something new to delve into. It increases regularly at each end to form the shape.
I designed this shawl to encapsulate the history and essence of the Maltese islands I live on with a focus on the Megalithic Temples of Malta that were constructed during the 3rd & 4th millennium BC. I was especially inspired by a favorite of my family, Ġgantija Temple on the island of Gozo, a sort of sister island to the main island of Malta that we live on, and we often take a ferry trip over to visit during the Summer months. It holds great memories and attachments for us and so the concept of this shawl was born during those family trips as a way to recreate it. A symbol you will often see when visiting the temples of these islands and learn of the nature and ritual based focus of an ancient organised society is that of a spiral, a symbol which in itself appeals to me and so I have used lace and stockinette stitch to try to recreate that classic motif through the centre panel of the shawl. Other traditional characteristic elements of the land and sea are brought in, both in design elements and colour choices I’ve chosen to use in my sample. The mesh stitch lacework, lace work also being a traditional craft of these islands, was inspired by fisherman’s nets from our characteristic fishing culture, the scales patterning, between those net panels to represent the fish hauled in. It finishes with the traditional Old Shale lace with its well known wavy edge, to symbolise all things coastal, shell like and of the waves of the surf rolling in. For both of those parts I wanted a slightly lighter yarn to give them a more lacy, airy feel to the fabric created there. The shades I chose such as the fern green reminded me of the shades of the fish and fauna found here, for instance our prickly pear plants that grow abundantly, whilst the yarn colour of the nets and foam has speckles of the rusty colour of our soil and deep blue of the Mediterranean sea that surrounds us. The sandy shade used in the centre section is close to the natural stone made use of by those ancient temple builders and modern construction throughout the islands today.

Knitting skills & techniques used:
Intermediate : Casting on, binding off, knitting, purling. Increases and decreases by making both K2togethers, Slip slip Knit, yarn overs as well as working slip 1 stitch knitwise and passing over that slipped stitch. It also involves regular increasing by way of knitting into the front and back of a stitch twice at both ends of the shawl on Right side rows.

Materials:
The yardage amounts shown are a little over what was actually used in view of rounding up to give you several grams room regarding what’s required for each of the 3 yarns. Some testers found they ran low / out of the Yarn B so you might want to plan to use a yarn for Yarn B that you have a little extra of (For instance for Yarn B the actual amount used by myself was 95g, but I have rounded it up to 100g in the yarn requirements in the same way as detailed above, which was done for all the yarn amounts)
Requires approx 943 metres / 1,031 yards fingering weight yarn.

For the sample I used both ‘Cashmere Sock’ & ‘Twist Sock’, yarns by The Wool Barn, which are different blends of Merino, Cashmere & Nylon (exact blend of each of the 2 yarns are detailed below), but any fingering weight yarn that offers good drape and stitch definition will be fine. The following yarn usage amounts are an approximate guide, and includes the approx yardage amounts I used of each colour. The following yarns are different bases from The Wool Barn but both were used to create the sample as I liked the slightly differing fabrics for the differing stitch patterns used in this pattern. Obviously you can use covering yardage of matching bases to create your shawl.

The Wool Barn:
‘Twist Sock’ Fingering weight yarn (B), 400 yards (366 meters)
(80% Wool - Merino, 20% Manufactured Fibers - Nylon / Polyamide)
‘Cashmere Sock’ Fingering weight yarn (A & C), 382 yards (349 meters)
80% Wool - Merino, 10% Goat - Cashmere goat, 10% Manufactured Fibers - Nylon / Polyamide)
Yarn A : Silver Fern, (the silvery green) (amount used 259 meters / 283 yards)
Yarn B : Coastal, (Speckle/cream) (amount used 366 metres / 400 yards
Yarn C : Sandstone, (Sandy beige) (amount used 319 metres / 348 yards)