#grotine shawls

For those who haven’t been on Instagram lately, Caroline has been running a KAL of her Grotine Shawl with proceeds benefiting True North Aid:

100% of the proceeds from the sale of Grotine when purchased directly from me will go to True North Aid. True North Aid is a Canadian Charity committed to serving northern Indigenous communities in Canada with practical humanitarian support.

As of April 30, 2019 $3250 has been raised.

I wanted to participate but I also wanted to knit shawls as gifts for James’ teachers so I couldn’t really share on social media — not that they follow me or anything but you never know.

The first that I made was in colours James chose from my stash — I loved working with the Patons Kroy because the colours moved nicely from one to another, keeping my interest but also engaged in the pattern. It’s an easy pattern to remember and would be great in handspun:

Pattern: Grotine by Caroline Dick

Yarn: Patons Kroy in colourways Turqoise Jacquard (above) & Grey, Brown Marl (below)

Needles: 5.5mm

I let James go through my stash of yarns and he chose these colours. I maybe wouldn’t have chose these specific yarns because one of James’ teachers is a knitter herself, knows yarns and probably will recognize the colourway. On the other hand, he was so pleased and felt that he really knew what his teachers’ would like so I decided it was more important to honour his feelings than anything else.

The kids had swimming lessons through the winter and spring so I knit at the side of the pool through those 30 minute lessons. That’s how I was able to get through both shawls so quickly – they were so fast. I was a bit burned out by the time I reached the second half of the second one because the pattern is repetitive (which makes it easy to memorize) but also gets monotonous. Like all knitting patterns do!

Regardless, the results are great and I love the texture. I’m pleased to be able to present something like this to each of his amazing, wonderful teachers. It’s been a great year and he absolutely loves school – what more could you ask of his school?

One funny thing about the two shawls is even though the yardage is roughly the same, the red shawl ended up being longer than the other. Weird huh?

I’m sure I’m going to get some questions about the labels. I ordered them from Sweet Pine Hills a couple of years ago and have placed them on countless garments.

I often use them when I will be gifting because on the back is the care instructions, which are hand-wash and lay flat. People don’t remember these instructions so it’s nice to have them right on the item itself.

These labels fold in half and I was able to work with them to create custom labels for my garments. I ordered the grey and the writing is black for readability. They were great to work with and I’ll order from them again when I need more.

Are you nearing the end of the school year? Any plans for the summer? I’d love to hear in the comments below.