Olga and Lukin leaned over the parapet to watch a great brown griffin come gently to the ground beside Wizard Policant’s statue and fold her cream-barred wings down on her lion’s back. She towered above the statue.
”That,” Lukin said, awed, “must be quite the biggest griffin ever. I think her name’s Callette.”

-Year of the Griffin
by Diana Wynne Jones

When I heard about the death of Diana Wynne Jones, far and away my favorite author, I felt at a loss. I had never met her personally, but her books touched my life in many ways. This shawl was born from that first day when the news broke, when I needed something to throw myself into wholeheartedly. I think Mrs. Jones would approve of creating something beautiful out of grief.

The shawl itself is almost a wrap, knit in cozy worsted-weight wool - superwash for durability, warmth, and easy care. The unique cast-on design, knit sideways from each end, gives it a trapezoidal wing-like shape, and the simple lace pattern creates beautiful feathery chevrons. Finally, simple intarsia forms the characteristic bars of the wings. None of the techniques in this pattern are particularly advanced, but add them all together and they make for a challenging, rhythmic knit!

You will need about 550-600 yards of your main color and perhaps 50-100 yards of your contrast.

If you are knitting this in memory of Diana Wynne Jones, please consider making a donation via JustGiving to the hospice where she spent her last days.