A little sister to Lionberry; the clouds to its sunshine, the smoke to its flame. Knit in the same yarn at the same gauge, great for wrapping around your neck or laying across your shoulders.

The name can be read two ways: sky sweepings, or sky’s weepings. The first refers to it’s texture; the second, to it’s color.

But why, you may well be wondering, would you knit such a texture-rich pattern in such a dark yarn? Darker colors are notorious for swallowing detail (there’s a reason Arans are typically knit in shades of white). You have to look closely to see some of the designs. But that was part of the effect I was going for.

What if you were able to take a broom on a cloudy day - a grey day - what I affectionately call a Green Queen day - and sweep up all the bits and pieces that clutter the sky and make them into a shawl: varied in tone, redolent with diversity, cloud-soft: grey as the beautiful, life-giving rain? This was something of the effect I was going for. Because even on the cloudy days, there is a wealth of patterns and textures and hues to be seen, even though we often don’t trouble to look for it, it is there nonetheless: not all beauty is immediately observable: and sometimes the silver lining needs a little spit and polish.

Of course, it would look lovely in a lighter shade also; and if you want it more shawl- and less scarf-like, use a thicker yarn and larger needles: gauge and yardage differing, of course. Knit in a worsted weight on size 10 needles, this makes a lovely tie shawl. I used a little less than 12 oz./500 yards at about 3.5 sts per inch gauge; shawl measured about 64 x 23 ins. After blocking, the grey fingering-weight version measures about 57 x 16 inches.

Thank you for pausing to look at my handiwork.

1/5/17 A.D. Thanks to fellow Raveler hilda10, Skysweepings is now available in German!

This pattern is for personal use only.

Soli Deo Gloria