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Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Is it the Zeitgeist?

I took a walk along 5th Avenue in NYC last week and noticed that there was a lot of orange to be seen in the department stores and boutiques. Now NYC is a basically black town. Everyone wears black all the time in all seasons. Yet, I saw orange in solids, patterns, and all shades from deep rust to bright orange. Does this have to do with the wretched economic times? Is there some designers' conspiracy to brighten us all up?

I have no answers to this - just the observation of orange. This is not a problem for me because although I wear black most days, I do like to add some touches of bright color.

My bright red shawl is shown in my last post. Here are some pictures of an orange shawl I made recently -- but before I took that walk on the Avenue.



In addition to orange, I just love lace, especially hand knitted and crocheted lace which I love to combine in one garment.





The beautiful handmade palm wood shawl pin is just right for fastening a lace shawl. It was made by a talented wood worker on Etsy.






This shawl looks lovely without the shawl pin too and it does stay in place because of it's length and texture.





The fine weight of the lace in this shawl means that it can be gathered together and worn as a huge scarf too. The shawl pin comes in handy here again.


Technically, this shawl is a stole since it's rectangular in shape whereas a true shawl is triangular like the red one in the last post. For this orange shawl I used a lace stitch that forms long ladders. A stole seemed more in keeping with the spirit of the thing. I also added a crocheted zigzag lace to the ends to emphasize the rectangular quality.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about this shawl, so please feel free to comment.

You can find out more about the stole and/or purchase it in my Etsy shop http://www.KnittingGuru.etsy.com .

Happy Spring! You know it's coming soon!
This March really did come in like the proverbial lion, so let's hope it goes out like a lamb.

On the other hand, why wait for spring to wear this? I knitted the shawl with a gorgeously soft wool that will be perfect through all four seasons.