My grandmother was an irascible Englishwoman. Born in Cheshire, she grew up in Wales and immigrated with her family to Canada at age fourteen. Oh, that woman could knit!! Every winter we received multicolored hats and mittens intricately patterned with our favorite things--kittens, ice skaters, horses. She knit I-cord with her fingers and, when my mom and uncle were little, she would take them to the movies. While they watched the film, she would sit with them knitting away in the dark. This shawl was designed as a knitting tribute to my grandmother, Rose May Lucas.

The finished, blocked size of the shawl is approximately 80” wide x 44” long. It is knit from the top down and consists of two triangles separated by a 2 stitch garter stitch column at the center back. The shawl’s lace patterns are primarily knit on a stockinette stitch background, unless otherwise noted, the even rows are purled except for a small area of garter stitched triangles and the edging. There is a garter stitch selvage along the top side of the shawl.

The shawl begins with an over-all pattern of Open Work Leaves. From the leaves sprout 21 stylized long-stemmed roses on each side of the shawl, blooming on garter stitch stems against a lattice of vertical faggoting. A knitted on Chevron Lace Edging adds the look of a picket fence to the back of the rose garden.

This shawl can be knit by intermediate knitters and uses yarnovers, K2Tog, SSK, Double Decreases, SK2P, twisted stitches, single and double right and left crosses and a knitted on edging. All techniques are explained in the pattern.