Each year when our tax refund arrives, we pack all
6 children into the car and do something
very decadent: drive to the bookstore.
Everyone gets to pick out a stack of books
to bring home. Last year my daughter, Kezziah
Rose, discovered the Monster Blood Tattoo
series by D M Cornish. They set our imaginations
alight. We devoured the series.
This shawl is named for one of the characters THRENODY
OF HERBROULESSE, "a self-determined girl,
stubborn and quick-witted, and even quicker
tempered, sent to Sinster by her mother on her thirteenth
birthday to be transmogrified into a lahzarine wit. Threnody
has ideas of her own which (of course) do not always correlate
to her mother’s
ambitions for her. Threnody’s request to become
a lamplighter was granted her, if only
to give Syntyche and the Columbines of
Columbris a rest from all the agonies of mother-daughter
angst."
-D M Cornish,
The Monster Blood Tattoo
Series
As a daughter who had her own ideas, and is now mothering
girls of strength who have their own ideas, this shawl
is for the balance of trying to live up to the dreams
that our parents have for us while dreaming new dreams
of our own.
models: Zemeira,
Talia, Tirzah and Kezziah photos: Heatherly
Walker
DK weight version
[shown above]: IndigoDragonfly
DK Polwarth Silk [75% Polwarth,
25% Silk; 750yd/685m per 250g skein];
color: Don’t you have an elsewhere
to be? (Cordelia); 1 skein
Fingering weight version
[shown at right]: Holiday
Yarns Jennifer’s Flock Sock [75% superwash
Merino, 25% nylon, 400yd/365m per 100g
skein]; color: Lavender Buds; 1 skein
Recommended needle size [always use a needle
size that gives you the gauge
listed below -- every knitter's
gauge is unique] DK
weight version: US
#9/5.5mm circular needle
Fingering weight version: US
#6/4.25mm circular needle
Correct
gauge is not critical for this project, but your final
measurements and yardage requirements may vary if your
gauge is different.
DK weight version:
16 sts/22 rows = 4 inches
in stockinette stitch
PATTERN NOTES [Knitty's list of standard abbreviations and techniques can be found here.]
This pattern uses a provisional cast
on: use either the crochet cast on or the open cast
on as described here.
Double yarnovers: In Chart A, you will often have two yarnovers
next to each other on the chart, where you will wrap the yarn
twice around the needle. On the following WS rows, they will
be worked as follows: Purl into first yo through the back of
the loop, purl the second yo as usual.
C4R [WS]: Slip next 2 sts to cable needle and place at back
(RS) of work, p2; then p2 from cable needle. C4L [WS]: Slip next 2 sts to cable needle
and place at front (WS) of work, p2; then
p2 from cable needle.
Charts
The charts for this pattern are very large. Each fits on a
letter-sized page.
Click the links below and print each resulting
page. Assemble Left and Right halves of Chart
A.
Set Up:
Using a provisional cast on and scrap yarn, CO 3 sts.
With project yarn, knit 10 rows (for 5
garter stitch ridges). Do not turn work
at end of last row. Instead, rotate work
90 degrees clockwise and pick up and knit
1 st in each of 5 garter ridges along edge
of work. Finally, undo the cast on and place
sts on a spare needle, then knit each of
3 sts from CO. 11 sts.
Begin Charts: Row 1 [RS]: K3, sm, work Row
1 of Chart A, sm, k1, sm, work Row
1 of Chart A, sm, k3.
Row 2 [WS]: K3, sm, work next
row of Chart A, sm, p1, sm, work next
row of Chart A, sm, k3.
Cont in patt until Row 74 of Chart A
is complete. 167 sts.
Cont in patt, working as established but
with Chart B instead of Chart A, until Row
46 of Chart B is complete. 259 sts.
Finally, cont in patt, working Border Chart
instead of Chart B until Row 7 of Border
Chart is complete, ending on a RS row.
Bind off all sts loosely using the Decrease
Bind Off (working all decreases as p2tog).
FINISHING
Weave in ends and block to measurements, pinning out the points
in the Border Chart.
ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Heatherly Walker is a bibliophile who lives in Northern California
with an amazing husband and six imaginative
children who let her join in on their battles
against trolls and goblins. The rooms of
their home are filled with books and in
spaces where there are no books, yarn can
be found thanks to the yarn fairy.
