Xena’s breeder, Lora, has been waiting for her Suri Dream shawl much longer than I care to admit. The greatest obstacle to my getting started was finding a pattern that would work well for Lora. The pattern I choose for another friend’s Prayer Shawl turned out to be my answer. As soon as I finished Elizabeth’s shawl, I cast on the Black Forest version.

Lora travels a lot and prefers to wear black, grey and white for simplicity’s sake. I love my long, narrow Suri Dream shawl that I use as a blanket when I’m sitting in an airplane seat. It also works well as a pillow or even as a true shawl.

Lora is the first non-knitting person to whom I’ve given a shawl. It dawned on me that “blocking” was not something she would appreciate having to do whenever she washed her shawl. Handwashing is fine but weaving in blocking wires, etc. would be a bit much to ask. I soaked the shawl in a Kookaburra Woolwash bath, wrapped it in a large towel, spun it in the washing machine and then draped it over our drying rack. Since the pattern is so simple, it was easy to “faux” block the shawl this way. I will explain it to Lora and I’m sure she will be able to repeat the process.

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