Well, Halloween came and went — but my “Bat yarns” lingered on the piano.  And lingered.  They  lingered and whispered “I want to be a shawl.”  

And after a while,  I whispered back “I want you to be a shawl too.”  Bats are not just for October, after all!  I have always like bats — they are such fabulous, funky creatures.  I mean, they are flying mammals!  And a cozy gray bat shawl for cold winter evenings — delightful 🙂

So, out came the stitch dictionaries and graph paper (I love graph paper — not only is it supremely useful, but it has a “down to real business” look to it — kinda mathematical and scientific and engineerish).  

I have also always loved both “Batwing Lace” and this adorable bat motif from Barbara Walker’s collection of stitch patterns.  And I found a lace edging that has a decided batwing feel to it.

Usually I knit shawls from the top down, but since I wanted the bats upright, I had to start at the bottom of the shawl (tho I did consider upside-down bats for awhile…).  The shape will be a trapezoid (a triangle with the bottom corner lopped off).  I am starting with the thinner yarn and the thicker yarn will finish it off at the top (cozy around the back of my neck). 

Next came swatching the yarn for needle size and gauge…then the figuring (numbers) and notes on symbols…

And then it was time to cast on and knit!

”In process” photos of this lace work do not really do justice to the patterns as everything is scrunched up on the needles and the lacy points curl (all will be remedied in the final blocking of the shawl!).

You can see the beginnings of the first bat!

It is so much fun to work on this shawl — and satisfying to be doing a design project 🙂  I will knit the lace portion of the shawl, adding bat motifs as I go along, until I run out of that yarn.  At that point, I will decide what exactly to do with the thicker yarn.  And I think this quiet gray knitting will be visually restful during the dazzling kaleidoscopic folderol of the Christmas Season!