Am I turning into a lace shawl person or something? I’ve long had profound respect for the design work that goes into a truly phenomenal shawl pattern, and equal respect for people who can knit them. (By which I mean people who have both the technical ability and the attention span!) But a lace shawl just isn’t something you’re likely to find me wearing.* Or at least, hasn’t been. But I am increasingly obsessed with this Frida shawl from the latest Brooklyn Tweed collection. It caught my eye while they were teasing the collection. I gazed at it forever when the lookbook came out. And I just keep going back to it! Every time I look at it, I love it more. Designed by Hiroko Fukatsu,** it’s a little bit Japanese, a little bit Mexican; it’s quite a bit of stockinette combined with a little bit of geometric lace; and that use of loop stitch is just utterly ingenious. I’ve gone beyond admiring it, and have had multiple conversations with myself about what color I want it in. Do you understand: I am picturing myself in this shawl! But that still leaves the little problem of its being a fingering-weight lace shawl. Who do I think is going to knit it for me?
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*Not that there’s anything wrong with wearing a lace shawl, mind you — it’s just not characteristic of irredeemable minimalists like myself.
**Aka “Roko,” whose blog I’ve been subscribed to for ages, even though I can’t read a word of it. But her knitting is amazing, and anyone who names their blog after a Doris Day movie is good people in my book.