Swedish Wedding Shawl

When one of my oldest and dearest friends asked me to knit her a shawl for a wedding she would be attending in the beginning of June in Sweden, I was more than happy to oblige. Not just because she’s one of my besties and has been there for me in good times and bad, but she gets it. She totally understands the work that goes into creating a knitwear accessory, she appreciates the skill and time involved and, I should add, compensated me fairly for it with zero awkwardness.

 



She sent me a photo of her dress, and I instantly had a vision. It needed to be a long rectangular wrap, in a deep blue with pinks for accent. The dress has a beautiful floral pattern with hummingbirds and I did not want the wrap to detract from the dress. It needed to be simple, yet elegant and I didn’t have a lot of time.

I found a lovely wool and silk blend on sale in the perfect blue, and I just so happened to have the perfect pinks in my stash.

I really enjoy what’s called sequence knitting, a technique developed by Cecilia Campochiaro. It’s all about a simple set of stitches, repeated over and over, creating interesting and unique fabrics. I love the texture of her Piland scarf, so I used that same sequence for the whole wrap.

The two sides of the fabric are not the same, but they are both so beautiful my “favorite side” changes daily. I increased the overall size to a whopping 17" x 76" with knit selvedge edges for clean long ends, and the short ends are i-cords worked in two different speckled pink sock yarns held together for the perfect marled pink ends.


It ended up being a very enjoyable, easy, meditative knit, and I couldn't be more proud of the finished piece. It is perfect. It’s elegant, long and cozy without being bulky or heavy. It doesn't slide off the shoulder when bending over - a huge peeve of mine. And most importantly, she loves it!

Now I just need one to knit one for myself!