Knitted Stories…The Winter Warmth Shawl

This shawl has been a long time coming. Began earlier this year in March it has seen and experienced a lot of memories with Mr. C. and I this year.

The shawl first began on a shopping trip with a girlfriend in my town Stuttgart Germany. It was purchased in a little store called Wolle & Tee or for us english, Wool & Tea. A sweet little shop where the lady who runs it lives in the back of her store and specializes in wool and tea.

The yarn then followed me to America, where when we were waiting to see if my mother would survive a deadly infection my sister and I found a pattern in a vogue magazine and there in the hospital room the shawl was conceived.

As my mother recovered the shawl then followed me back to Europe, where it visited the Netherlands, Italy and France and in early June the romance of a beach in the little country of Montenegro. The shawl was with me during two friends weddings and during the death of a family member. It comforted me during my illness in the autumn and warmed my lap during cozy nights at home with Mr. C. It visited my work for lunch time knits and while counting it’s numerous stitches I made big decisions about my life.

The night it was finished was the night before I left Germany to head to the states for my surgery and I quickly blocked it (for those non-knitters blocking is the final step of the knit process). The idea of leaving it alone in Germany while I started a new adventure was unsupportable.

Now the shawl covers me as I write this and as I think about the shawl’s story. I think about how much bigger the story is than even my version, recorded here on my blog. I think of the yarn maker, the pattern maker. I think of the future stories of the shawl. How it will follow me on more life adventures, how it will hopefully warm Mr. C and mine babies when they are a little and where it as brides.

I remember a piece of knitted lace first seen as a young girl of eight in my Aunt’s house and was told it was knitted by one of my German ancestors long ago. I hope that someday this shawl will be in a future generations house and a young girl or boy will be told the same thing of this winter warmth shawl.