Victorian Skies
The house fronts looked black enough, and the windows blacker, contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs, and with the dirtier snow upon the ground; which last deposit had been ploughed up in deep furrows by the heavy wheels of carts and waggons; furrows that crossed and recrossed each other hundreds of times where the great streets branched off; and made intricate channels, hard to trace in the thick yellow mud and icy water. The sky was gloomy, and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist, half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles descended in shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in Great Britain had, by one consent, caught fire, and were blazing away to their dear hearts’ content. There was nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town, and yet was there an air of cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air and brightest summer sun might have endeavoured to diffuse in vain.
— Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
The inspiration for Victorian Skies came from Charles Dickens’ descriptions of Victorian London, like the vivid depiction in the above quote. London is a city famous for its fog, and the idea behind this shawl was to interpret fog in colors and patterns. Classic Elite Yarns Mountaintop Vail and Mountaintop Villa provided the perfect color palette in a soft alpaca and bamboo blend yarn, while the lace pattern creates bands of rolling waves like billowing clouds of mist. Narrow bands of eyelets worked in a neutral color separate each stripe and unify the color scheme.
The pattern is easily adapted to different gauges and colors, with directions on adjusting the size of the shawl, and determining how much yarn you’ll need for each stripe. It also includes a blank schematic diagram that you can color in to try out different color schemes. I wanted this shawl to be a “stash buster”, so it can be easily adapted to use the yarn you already have, and maybe find another use for a beautiful leftover bit of yarn that’s been rolling around in your stash. You’ll find all the details of gauge, needles, and yarn on the pattern page or buy it now.
Thank you for knitting!