A while ago, I combined two of my favorite things in a handwoven shawl – stars and rainbows. I love weaving star-shaped motifs and using rainbow colors to do so adds to the enjoyment. The weather in June has been quite warm thus-far, so I have not worn the shawl much. Still, given that we are celebrating June as Pride Month this year, I thought it would be nice to share the shawl with you.

Recently, I made a shawl for my sister in advancing twill with echo using an advancing point twill sequence in warp and weft. This shawl really got me inspired. For my sister, I used only two colors throughout the shawl. I wondered what it would look like using more. I did not have to wait long before the ideal opportunity for this experiment presented itself.

As a hand weaver, I do not need much of an excuse to start a new shawl. There is a myriad of good reasons to weave a new shawl: trying out a new yarn, experimenting with a weaving technique, weaving the perfect shawl to accompany a new coat or weaving a shawl as a gift. In my latest project, all of these reasons applied: I used a novel yarn in a new weaving technique to make a shawl to go with my mothers new coat.

When I showed my five-year-old niece the shawls of the Stardust Collection, she said she liked them but they were far too big for her. So, I knew what I had to do: make a shawl for my niece of just the right size. Not too small, not too big but just right: like in the Goldilocks fairytale. Her mother and her two-year-old brother could use a new shawl as well, so I set ot to make three shawls in three different sizes.

In a woven fabric, the colors of warp and weft intimately interact with each other. Some color combinations show a clear contrast when they are interwoven, other color combinations blend together. This week, my mother gifted one of my handwoven shawls to a friend. The palette of green, blue and turquoise tints made for a lovely lively blend of colors.