Lydia's Star

Back in the spring, I stumbled across a pattern for a vintage circular shawl in a very old publication. No picture but the description of a star and leaf pattern intrigued me enough to find some yarn and cast on. The instructions were surprisingly easy to understand and update to modern knitting terminology. I finished the shawl after several weeks. It is gorgeous! I may well be the first person to knit this design in over 100 years! (That really appeals to the history major in me. LOL!) It would be a real shame to lose this piece of our knitting heritage. So I have taken the time to write and chart the shawl pattern for others to use.

First off, I've given the pattern a new name---Lydia's Star. I'm dedicating this pattern to my niece’s grandmother, Lydia, who passed away this summer after a long battle with cancer. A donation will be made in Lydia's name to the American Cancer Society for each pattern sold.

The original shawl pattern cryptically titled “A Handsome Round Shawl Knitted in Star Pattern and Leaves” is from Weldon’s Practical Knitter (1895) had no picture of the shawl. I've adapted and updated the vintage pattern for use by modern knitters. The 6 page pattern contains updated instructions, errors have been corrected, vague instructions clarified, missing instructions added, the pattern totally charted, and a lace edging added. The original shawl ended with a just few plain knit and purl rounds. I felt that such a beautiful shawl deserved something a little more special than that.

I used 1500 yards of fingering weight yarn (Jaggerspun Maine Line 2/8) on size 4 (3.5 mm) needles to knit this shawl. My finished shawl measured 52” across at the center but could have been blocked even larger. I didn't have a space large enough to block it as much as I would have liked.

I hope you enjoy knitting this shawl as much as I did.

The pattern can be found in my Ravelry pattern store.

All money from pattern sales is donated to the Mercy Corp.

For more information, visit my Ravelry pattern store to see all my available designs, current pricing information, and purchase pattern downloads.