The Shawl at the End of the Universe

Last Updated on August 14, 2020 by lydiaf1963

The other day I was going through some photos on my phone and came across this one:

It was the start of a shawl I made for my sister Laura. I documented my progress a bit on Instagram and some of the early Creatively Crafty parties, but I realized I had not written a post about the final project.

So today, close to a year later, here’s the reveal!

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In the photo above you can see we’re sitting at a cafe enjoying the sun on a winter’s day. The cafe provided lap blankets, which I thought was a cozy touch. I cast on and got to it.

The shawl travelled with me to London, where we had breakfast at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant. We had a long layover before boarding the flight for home. There was time for a pot of tea, too.

I was worried about the Vogons at Heathrow, but they let my bamboo needles go through security. I was able to knit on the very long plane ride. While my project made it through the checkpoint, the small bottle of wine given to us on the flight from Madrid to London was rejected. Rick had tucked it into his backpack and it was over the allowable limit for liquids.

Once we were home I took the shawl to work on while watching women’s lacrosse at the local university. The shawl was pretty much my constant companion for several weeks. It travelled nicely.

It’s not a difficult pattern at all. It’s one of four shawls designed by Martina Behm inspired by The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. You may have heard of the Hitchhiker. This one is called Trillian after the main female character in the novels. Except for an increase at one end and a decorative edge at the other, the entire shawl is stockinette stitch. It’s perfect for showing off a gorgeous hand dyed yarn.

I used a fingering weight merino in greens and blues. It’s suited for my sister’s coloring. I’d bought way too much yarn online and it was another year before I felt comfortable using it. If you’re intimidated at using fine yarns, this collection of shawls is perfect for building confidence. I haven’t looked back.

Since it’s wool, the finished shawl needed to be blocked. It really opened up after washing and blocking.

Wasn’t it nice of Miss Kitty to lend her body weight to help dry the Trillian shawl? The towels are there for a reason!

I was so pleased to have completed my project before we left the US last May. It was an early present for my sister’s “mid century” birthday. She looks very pretty wearing it, doesn’t she?