English Breeze is a swingy shawl with a beautiful but simple florette lace pattern down the center back. The wings of the shawl are knitted from the center out, in garter stitch, so there are no seams.

Directions for the lace pattern are both written and charted for an easy 12-row repeat. For the wings of the shawl you can choose all one color or change the striping however you please. The directions are written for 2 x 2 striping that becomes 2 x 4 striping, thus allowing for the colors to become more dominant along the length of the shawl wings, with less of a dark background.

This shawl is named after Emily Dickinson’s poem “An English Breeze.” The sway of the garter stitch reminds me of the breeze, and the colors, set in a burgundy background, remind me of an English garden. It’s bouncy, breezy, and indulgent.

Enjoy!

An English Breeze
Emily Dickinson

UP with the sun, the breeze arose,
Across the talking corn she goes,
And smooth she rustles far and wide
Through all the voiceful countryside.

Through all the land her tale she tells;
She spins, she tosses, she compels
The kites, the clouds, the windmill sails
And all the trees in all the dales.

God calls us, and the day prepares
With nimble, gay and gracious airs:
And from Penzance to Maidenhead
The roads last night He watered.

God calls us from inglorious ease,
Forth and to travel with the breeze
While, swift and singing, smooth and strong
She gallops by the fields along.