Wintery leaves glazed with ice. A perfect project to mark the Winter Solstice. I was compelled to knit this stole with the colourway Snowbound as my children and I thought it would be the snowloving knitter’s equivalent to a rain dance; we are hankering after snow as we didn’t have a single flake last winter!

This pattern is completely addictive - I’m itching to start another one but there is the small matter of Christmas to prepare - and easy to memorize. There are three charts; the initial border one with large leaves which decrease in size as you knit the second and third charts. Two halves of the stole are knit in exactly the same manner and then grafted together in the centre with Kitchener stitch. The join is invisible once blocked.

I was a little dubious about the rustic charms (aka scratchy) of Shelter at first but I am happy to say that both soaking and blocking soften this yarn up and makes it delightfully springy to the touch. I used up every inch of the five skeins and had to omit one of the seven repeats in the third chart the second time ‘round as I did not have quite enough.