Another semi.. :)

This is a wedge construction semicircular shawl with a textured knit/purl leaf start, an expanding leaf sequence based on the Ginkgo stitch pattern.

Note chart 3 a or b (including bind off) uses approximately the same amount of yarn as the frost 72 rows, and chart 3 c or d (including bind off) uses approximately the same amount as the first 81 rows, so you may like to weigh your yarn after row 72 & 81 to use as a reference later.

While knitting this, I was struck by how much yellow there is in winter. The yarnovers in the body remind me of the wattle that is in flower everywhere here (it’s also the National Women’s flower in Italy, interestingly), and the flower-leaf motif at the start reminds me of Hypericum/St John’s wort, which while it doesn’t flower at the time of year, is the perfect cheerer-upper in the drear of winter. An antidote to the greyk as it were. :)

Mine is one of the small sizes. The pattern is written with 4 exit points (or 6 if you choose to increase).

I chose to block mine only very gently, as I loved the way the edge forms a natural ruffle, so reminiscent of ginkgo leaves.

However it can also be blocked into points, as per the red swatch.

Pattern needs a name.

Adiantum? Ginkgo is also called the maidenhair tree, after the adiantum genus of ferns that have leaves of a similar shape. Funnily enough, they also remind me of Cossington Smith’s style of brushwork.

From Wikipedia:
The ginkgo is a living fossil, with fossils recognisably related to modern ginkgo from the Permian, dating back 270 million years. The most plausible ancestral group for the order Ginkgoales is the Pteridospermatophyta, also known as the “seed ferns”; specifically the order Peltaspermales. The closest living relatives of the clade are the cycads, which share with the extant G. biloba the characteristic of motile sperm.

Fossil plants with leaves that have more than four veins per segment have customarily been assigned to the taxon Ginkgo, while the taxon Baiera is used to classify those with fewer than four veins per segment. Sphenobaiera has been used for plants with a broadly wedge-shaped leaf that lacks a distinct leaf stem.

Can I find a pattern name in there somewhere?

After agonising about where best to set this donation to, I’m going with the Amazon Conservation Association, as it gets a better rating on https://www.charitynavigator.org than the other flashier sites.. But I’m open convinced otherwise if you know more..?

Joining the GG MAL with this project.

I was going to choose one of my favourite artists, Mary Cassatt, (an American who joined the impressionist movement and went to live in Paris) because I admire her courage, and her feel for colour and light has inspired me since I was a teen.

But instead I think I’ll go with one of Grace Cossington Smith’s (Australian Post Impressionist/Modernist) Interiors series, because they blow me away. Looking at her paintings, I can picture how her palette would have gradually changed from one colour to the next, gradient style.. so it seems to fit.

‘Interior onto a garden’ is the top painting, one that always cheers me up somehow, especially in the depths of winter as it is now..

I’m pretty sure they both loved yellow. :)

Yarn usage:
R150=45K sts, R104=23,7K.

If 4 wedges x4=16, 5 wedges x4 =20
If 4 wedges x6= 24, 5 wedges x6=30
End r62=89.3g total
End r74=81 total
End r78=77.7 total
End r82= 74.7
End r84=72.8
End r88=69.5
End r90=68. Rem.
End r96= 63.3
End r102=57.8
End r114=45.7
End r122=37.89
End r126=33
End r128=30.5
End r130=28.5
End r132=26.25
End r134=24
End r136=21.89
End r140=17.2
End r142= 14.6
End r144 =11.68
End r146=8.6
End r148=5.43