HAVE YOU EVER EXPERIENCED that one special skein that wants to become something, but you’re not sure exactly what? You take it out every now and again, reveling in its beauty, but you can’t commit to a project. Nothing seems quite right. And then one day, the yarn finally tells you what it wants to be.

This shawl evolved in this way. I was in love with a particular Ritual Dyes one-of-a-kind club colorway (C1 in the pattern) from the moment I received it in the mail. I would knit it up, only to frog it again when I decided my project wasn’t worthy of its beauty, carefully winding the yarn back into a skein each time. Finally, I put it away for a while. Then I spent the summer in Wyoming.

Each day, I would wade through fields of delicate sub-alpine flowers on my way to climb chalky white limestone cliffs. And there, in this daily ritual, I found my inspiration—my special skein wanted to be a hillside of wildflowers embodied in textile form.

This shawl plays with flower motifs created using three techniques: texture, lace, and stranded mosaic knitting. I designed it to only require 3 skeins of yarn (1 skein each of 3 colors) so that you, too, might be inspired to use up those precious lone skeins in your stash!

Wyoming Wildflowers Shawl