I have a confession to make and it will rock the knitting community. Well, not really but doubtless some of you will think I’m nuts. I have always found scarves to be a bit ridiculous. Store bought or hand-made; it doesn’t matter. When I wear a scarf it always seems to be strangling me and, no matter what it’s made of, it itches the back of my neck. With the possible exception of a bit of lace to cover my shoulders at a summer church wedding, I find shawls to be equally useless. Really, what’s the point? If you’re cold put on a sweater and warm your entire upper body. At least that is how I felt before I moved to the Great White Northern Michigan. Our first winter we lived in a rental house with almost no insulation and a furnace powered by a geriatric hamster. I quickly learned no matter how many layers I wore, a bit of extra covering about the core and shoulders is a nice thing. I spent last winter making shawls in many shapes, mostly other people’s patterns but a few I designed on the fly. By spring, I was ready to design a shawl for the masses (of course I didn’t get around to it until several month later). In the spring one of my local yarn shops, Wool and Honey, had its sweet 16 birthday party featuring Michigan yarn dyer Plucky Knitter. I went in knowing what I wanted to make and found just the right yarns. A few months later, when I finally got around to starting the shawl, I was spending an evening with my hubby at our favorite local brewery when I realized the shawl colors were very similar to the colors of the brewery logo. Right then I knew the name would be inspired by Stormcloud and After the Storm was born.
After the Storm is a three color, asymmetric shawl. The sections of solid color combine stockinette and garter stitch. The multi-colored sections contain all three colors in a slipped stitch pattern. The yarns are mixed bases, one is a fluffy fingering-weight and the others are sport-weight. It’s an easy yet interesting knit. You can find the pattern on Ravelry. I'm still not a fan of the scarf but I have gained a healthy respect for the shawl.