Valeria

My Great Aunt Valeria was a trip and a half.

“Valeria”

She passed away a few years ago at the age of 96—a long life for a little Polish woman with abundant personality and a mouth that never stopped chattering. She was always known as CheCha, our variation on the Polish word for “aunt,” and while we had a CheCha Ruby and a CheCha Helen and a CheCha Katherine and a host of others, when you said you were going to CheCha’s house, it always meant Valeria.

Isn’t my photographer just crackerjack?

Valeria was a lifelong seamstress. She sewed her own dresses and wore one with heels everyday; I never saw her in a pair of slacks, and I never saw her in a store-bought dress. She was a little bitty thing, though, an always had a little something draped over her shoulders to keep out the chill.

Cashmere blend or Shetland…either works perfectly!

While she wasn’t a knitter, I couldn’t think of anyone more fitting to name this little shawlette after. I can totally see it wrapped around her as she flits around her yellow kitchen with the red countertops, making coffee and her famous apple turnovers.

Cables and lace…what’s not to love??

“Valeria” is a sweet little lacy cabled shawlette with a hint of a ruffle around the edge. Valeria is designed to complement your handspun, but looks just as great in a commercial yarn. It also works with subtle stripes and transitions as well as solid and semi-solid colorways.

I told Jenni to channel her inner Tyra and Heidi. She did a bang-up job!

Valeria is fully charted. Cables are worked over six stitches every eight rows. Mix that with a simple, four-row lace pattern, and you’ve got a pretty simple but effective knit on your hands.

Two of a kind

Valeria takes about 500 yards of light fingering weight. She’s shown here in my handspun Spunky Eclectic Shetland top in “Pomegranate” and Woolen Rabbit Kashmir in “Mystic Mountain Pine.”

Lacy, lacy cables

I’m totally psyched to have completed my 4! Ounce! Challenge! It was tough. It was angsty at times. It was a total learning experience. But I’m beyond thrilled with how my pattern looks, and I’m proud to have finished it.

We got a lot of great shots, but I think this may be my favorite one. Love, love, love this photo!

Valeria is now available as a free Ravelry download (Rav link), and I hope people enjoy knitting it as much as I enjoy offering it!

I’m completely blown away by the overwhelmingly positive response to my first published design. Thank you so much to everyone who’s already downloaded, faved, queued and commented. It totally made my day to see that positive response so quickly after all the hours of work!

Stripey goodness

Finally, I can’t thank my wonderful friends enough for their help. A million thanks to Jenni for being my awesome prototype model and to Kris for being my awesome photographer and to Emilee for joining us in Central Park and offering moral support while we played photo shoot. You guys are the best!

Little shawls in the big city