The FML Shawl

I’ve been noodling around with this idea for a shawl for some time now. I really love super long, wrappable shawls that are more of a scarf. The ones that you can wrap twice around your neck, or even fold in half and pull a loop through as you can do with thinner chiffon scarves.

However achieving such a long shawl can be tricky when you only have one skein of sockweight yarn to play with.

So I decided to try creating a long, wedge-shaped shawl with a picot edge which is knit as you go, and I was absolutely thrilled with how it turned out. I was less than thrilled when I came to photograph it though as it’s length makes it almost impossible to capture in a single image.

And the name? If you've followed me for a while you'll know that I love a shawl with a cheeky acronym. There's the FFFS (Fuss Free Festival Shawl) and the WTF (Worth the Fuss Shawl). So it was only a matter of time before I added the FML to my library.

The Find My Light Shawl was knit during a period of real reflection and change for me. I've made no secret of the fact that the menopause transition has been difficult for me and part of that has been accepting that my body is different to how it was before. Not worse, just different. While I was knitting on this I was reflecting on the fact after a period of difficulty I feel as though I am enjoying my daily activities more and finding joy in small things again - finding my light as it were.

And so it seemed a good name for the shawl - and the slightly cheeky acronym was of course an added bonus. Although given my difficulties in photographing it, I did consider naming it the TTP (terrible to photograph).