Last fall, Knitscene put out a call for designs for a special Accessiories issue. I love Knitscene. It’s one of my favorite knitting magazine so I was all over this call. I started sketching, flipping through stitch dictionaries, and swatching but nothing was really exciting me. So I put it down for a few days.

After a few days away, I reviewed their call again. The words “prairie pretty” really stood out for me, and the proverbial light bulb went off over my head. I had a design in the works that could work. I took that original swatch, switched up a few things, added a knitted on edge, and reknit the swatch. I sent it off to Knitscene and promptly put it out of my mind.

Here’s what happened next. On Friday, October 21st (yes, I remember that date), we had a jam-packed schedule. We had an IEP meeting at Liam’s school in the morning and his preschool field trip in the afternoon. In between those two things, we went to the bank to get the paperwork necessary to refinance our house. Walking into the bank, I opened my e-mail on my iPhone, then put my phone back in my bag. We had enough time for lunch before the field trip so we went to Bob Evans, Liam’s favorite restaurant of all time. We were seated, placed our orders, and I pulled my phone back out. I had a few e-mails so I started to read. As soon as I saw that I had an e-mail from Lisa Shroyer, the editor of Knitscene, I was excited. I opened it up and read it. She wanted my design for Knitscene Accessories! I believe my reaction was something like this:

I’m pretty sure I embarrased my husband with my reaction.

I finished the pattern and the sample and sent them off to Knitscene in December.

All shawl photos courtesy Knitscene and Interweave Press.

Zora is a top-down triangular shawl that features a simple mesh lace and garter stitch. The mesh lace pattern is reflected in the knitted on edge. It’s a simple little shawl and would be a fantastic first shawl project. The project is knit with Miss Babs Yummy Sock and Sport 3-ply. I used a full skein to knit the body of the shawl and just a little of a second skein for the knitted edge. This pattern would work equally well in a fingering weight yarn.

I’m going to be hosting a Zora KAL in my Ravelry group. There’s going to be prizes! I’ll have the details up over there in the next few days as soon as I get everything finalized. I hope to see you there. I’ll be knitting along too.

The issue is available for download at Interweave’s site and arrived today at my LYS. I’m sure it will hit your LYS or local bookstore over the next few days. It is a phenomenal issue. I received my copy on Tuesday, and there are so many beautiful patterns in this issue. I’m really proud to be a part of it.