When I think of the Jane Austen period, I picture the ladies in very simple shawls – designed more for function than appearance, yet still feminine. I wanted to design something that would fit this description, plus be a very simple pattern to memorize so that I could work on it while I watched my favorite Jane Austen movie marathon! This is the simple shawl that they would throw on while they are doing their needlework or walking to town.

I played with some different borders and trims and came up with a simple pattern that is worked from corner to corner, making it easy to know when it’s time to decrease (when you’ve reached the yarn “half-way” point.) I tried this out with a few friends from my LYS (we even watched the Colin Firth Pride & Prejudice mini-series while we knitted to get the full effect) and here are some pictures of the initial result.