A little show-and-tell for you today. I finished knitting this mantle just in time for my recent meditation retreat. I can’t decide if it’s brilliant or ridiculous but I think I love it. (Though it was really pretty ideal for days of sitting and walking in moody spring weather.)

Knitters are the biggest shawl enthusiasts, because a shawl is basically just a flexible canvas for all sorts of interesting knitting. And I really think that the next candidate for underappreciated garment to bring back is the mantle. It’s basically a sweater without the pesky design considerations, which translates to a bigger canvas and no shoulder geometry.

My original motivation was to use up a whole pile of leftover Lopi yarn, which meant that I had to modify the original design to suit the colors and amounts of yarn on hand. I drew the yoke design with colored pencils and graph paper during our February snowstorm and then knit it furiously to see if it would actually work (a few on-the-fly modifications required but mostly, yes). I lost momentum when I got to the solid blue but it got exciting again as key colors dwindled. In the end, I managed to use every last inch of the light blue, and had less than a yard left of the oatmeal and the dark blue.

This was just the sort of knitting project I’m enjoying these days – good pattern inspiration paired with plenty of room for creativity, low yarn investment, and an unfussy finished product.

More details on Ravelry.