Athos, a shawl

I have been away so long, poor blog.  But I have not not been knitting, if you know what I mean.  I continue to knit — a lot.  And work — too much.  And ferry around teenagers (who both have had orthopedic problems since I was last here, thus even more ferrying).  But I am alive and kicking and knitting!

I wanted to show my latest project, as it’s been the result of a lot of plotting and paper and pencil and eraser and knitting (and tinking, occasionally).  After re-reading “The Three Musketeers” recently, a couple knitting friends and I decided that each main character needed a shawl to honor them.  One of my reader-friends made a gorgeous dark silk shawl to evoke Aramis.  My other friend has yet to make her shawl, being busy moving right now.  But I chose Athos, who in some ways is the main character as much as d’Artagnan, and whose story directs the larger story.  As those who have read the book (or seen one of the movies) may remember, a fleur-de-lis plays a significant role in the plot, so I felt that needed to be a presence. Additionally, Athos wore his Musketeers uniform like a shield, or a cloak, hiding his identity. Thus I designed the shawl to evoke images of a musketeer’s tabard.  I used a very old diamond lace stitch pattern, modified to make it work in a shawl, and then used an equally old French pattern of true knitted lace for the edging, one that evoked the mountain that the name Athos came from.

The result?

Gothlet, newly home from camp, graciously modeled it for me.

I love it. It turned out almost exactly as I pictured, other than wider and bigger. That’s not a problem, though! I may reknit it in a slightly smaller size, however, to check the yardage and the look. I expect to be working on the pattern thereafter, by popular request….