A Shawl of One's Own

In an effort to ::cough:: increase productivity and avoid UFOs, for July Loopy Space Camp I'm starting earlier in the month with a shorter-mileage project. I neglected to blog that June projects had to be patterns published in 2019; this month's rules stipulate a pattern by a star designer, one with three or more pattern pages on Ravelry. I selected A Shield Against Grief by the stellar Francoise Danoy aka ArohaKnits.

ArohaKnits, to use her Ravname, identifies as a Franco-Maori American-Australian knitwear designer + coach living in Osaka, Japan, a bi-racial multi-cultural queer crafter of color. Those multiple belongings clearly inform her patterns and her business practices, and I've been deeply impressed with the way she shares and builds on her experiences. I'm impressed, too, with the intentional way this pattern explores compassionate strength. I look forward to knitting it out of Malabrigo Rios, colorway Valentina. (The photo is rather blue, it's been cloudy here.)



The shawl is to be a bit of selfish self-care knitting. Having had so many dumpster fires raging for so long I stand in need of a knitted hug and, happily, I have the necessary to make one. The deepest grief is lessening and the piling on has slowed, so it will be a lighter shade of mourning and also a color of the heart. It's time.