Lonely Sea is a crescent shawl inspired by The Tuft of Kelp, a tiny pearl of a poem. Herman Melville wrote it while working as a customs inspector, after his novels failed to provide him financial support.

Like its inspiration, Lonely Sea is comprised of simple elements that result in a nuanced and beautifully layered piece. It begins with a lace edging, worked side-to-side, that evokes the complex tangle of wave and foam breaking on the shore. The body is picked up along the long edge of the lace and worked in short rows to fill in the curve of the shoreline. Along the way, one patch of lace is worked right-of-center to represent a tuft of kelp on the shore. Lonely Sea is finished with a garter stitch edge that calls back to the tips of the lace edging and delicately frames the shawl.

Worked in River’s Edge Fiber Arts’ luscious, hand-dyed gradient yarn, this knit is pure bliss—there’s nothing bitter about it.

Update (Written-Out Version): Row 18 of the Top Band section should read, “Repeat row 17.” Row 23 of the Body section should read, Sl 1, k to the m, sl m, k2, ktbl, yo, k4, ssk, k1, yo 2 times, k2, sl m, k to 3 sts BTLT. Turn.
Purchasers have been notified that a corrected .pdf is available.

Instructions: The pattern includes both charted and fully written-out instructions.

Yarn: 1 skein of River’s Edge Fiber Arts’ Gradient Fingering Standard, or approximately 450 yards of fingering or light fingering yarn. Lonely Sea is designed to show off gradient or ombre yarn, but it would be lovely in a solid or semi-solid colorway as well.

Dimensions: Lonely Sea is 62” (158 cm) long on the inner curve, 92” (234 cm) long on the outer edge, and 12” (30 cm) deep at the center

Inspiration: The Tuft of Kelp, in its entirety, reads:

All dripping in tangles green, / Cast up by a lonely sea, /
If purer for that, O Weed, / Bitterer, too, are ye?