Crocheting the Goddess

There's an expression my colleague Julie Middleton came up with in consultation with me as a workshop title, and which she has freely allowed me to use: Singing the Goddess.

This comes to mind about a crochet pattern I've been working out.

A few nights ago night, I think I successfully completed designing a crochet pattern for a project that's been in my head for quite a while. It's a triple moon (triple Goddess) in white on the midnight-blue background of a triangular shawl.

I've crocheted a number of triangular shawls over this last year. The first one I ever made was for the wedding of two F/friends in 2005 (of white Egyptian cotton yarn).



And then I made a shawl for myself, to help me settle into, and stay warm during, Meeting -- candy apple red, acrylic and polyester, and another one that was in my head for a long time first.


But this last year, I started making rainbow prayer/comfort/Meeting shawls for the silent auction at FLGBTQC Gatherings. So far, I've made three, and I'm most of the way through a fourth. Two are in good homes, one's waiting for me to make arrangements with the woman who bought it, and the fourth one is also already spoken for. It's very gratifying.


For my shawl and for the rainbow shawls, I've been using Lion Brand Homespun, an acrylic and polyester yarn that's sometimes a pain to work with, but that's soft and cozy, machine washes well, works up quickly, and that I'm not allergic to. (I don't think I've worked in any wool in the last year, since my asthma was so bad last fall.)

Just like the Candy Apple caught my imagination -- it reminded me of an old blanket we'd had once, where the color just made me want to wrap myself up in it; and when I saw the yarn, I knew I wanted to wrap myself up in something I made of it -- one of the blues I've used for the rainbow shawls has also inspired me. I couldn't find the bright blue I'd been using, so I ended up with Colonial instead, and it caught my imagination.


So I think this is the color I'll use for this shawl, with white for the moons (intarsia, or crocheting them in, rather than embroidering them on after).

The design works in theory. But as my acquaintance Nancy says, "I want to move to theory. Everything works in theory." So, we shall see what happens when I actually try to work it. This'll be a neat learning experience.