a new pattern from cold comfort knits...

I'm very excited to announce that my newest pattern, The Water Shawl, is now available on Ravelry. Hooray for easy, breezy summertime knitting!!!

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If you read my last post, you'll know that this shawl was designed to be a relaxing knit, a calming project to help escape life's stresses. 

The inspiration for The Water Shawl came to me earlier this spring, during a walk along the shores of a cold and churned up Lake Ontario. Life was throwing me some curveballs at the time, in the form of moving stress, purging and packing. SO. MUCH. PACKING.

The thought of being without my yarn, even for a short time, was also pretty stressful--yet inevitable. But wait, it didn't ALL have to be packed, right? Surely I could save a few skeins from cardboard box hell, right? Right!

Honestly, it felt like Sophie's Choice at the time, yet somehow I managed to select four lucky skeins, and then quickly pack away the rest of my yarn babies, reassuring them (and myself) that it was only goodbye for now, not goodbye forever.

In retrospect, I'm not sure why I had such a tough time selecting those beautiful skeins from the stash. Alpaca + linen + silk + local + hand dyed = no brainer. I mean, seriously, what was there to think about??? 

To be fair, I have a lot of pretty yarn. Still, I'm embarrassed to admit that these beauties from Yarn Indulgences had been languishing in my stash for over a year! But with summer coming, and a big move in progress, I was sure these 437-yard lovelies were the skeins to guarantee my survival.

And I was right. Oh man, was I right. The yarn was positively sublime to knit with. Soft, silky, soothing, natural, earthy, drapey, and ga-ga-ga-gorgeous!

Of course, one of the perks of being a knitwear designer is being able to create patterns that meet your own specific goals. I designed The Water Shawl to be engaging, so my fingers could stay interested, yet repetitive, so I could relax into the rhythm of the needles. Thanks to the silky-soft fingering-weight yarn, the portability requirement took care of itself.

In addition, The Water Shawl was intended to be big. Like BIG big. I wanted a project I could rely on to be there any time I wanted (NEEDED) to get in a few calming rows.

Now, I know this probably won't come as a surprise to most of you--although it took me a while to figure out! But it seems that the patterns I design for my own personal knitting enjoyment also end up being the patterns my fellow knitters enjoy the most. Well fancy that.

If you would like to knit The Water Shawl yourself, good news! The pattern is on sale on Ravelry until the of May! Simply add the pattern to your basket, then use promo code LOVEWATER20 during checkout to Save 20%. Happy knitting! 

PS: I love seeing your cold comfort WIPs and FOs on social media. Use the tags #thewatershawl and/or #coldcomfortknits and let the whole world admire your beautiful knits! 

Knit It Now

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