Mary Ann Müller was one of New Zealand’s earliest suffragettes and under the pen name Fémmina wrote An appeal to the men of New Zealand, calling for votes for women in 1869. New Zealand women didn’t gain the right to vote till 1893, but without women like Müller talking a stand almost 25 years earlier we may have had to wait much longer.

Fémmina is knit from end to end. The Lace edging is worked as you go using a simple intarsia technique. The lace is straight-forward and predictable, but gives the project a little interest so that the knitting sits comfortably in the “while I watch TV” category but not in the “so boring I can’t go on” realm.

This shawl is highly adaptable in size, you can knit it as long as you have yarn.

Materials:

• 1 skeins of Vintage Purls Sock (75% Superwash N.Z. Merino, 25% Nylon; 384 metres / 420 yards per 100g skein) in main colour.
• 0.5 skeins of Vintage Purls Sock (75% Superwash N.Z. Merino, 25% Nylon; 384 metres / 420 yards per 100g skein) in trim colour.
• 4.00mm needles or size that gives you gauge. A 60cm circular is ideal. You can use straight needles for most of the work if you prefer but you probably will prefer to use a circular needle to work the pickup for the final top-edge trim.

Gauge:
26 stitches and 40 rows in 10cm (4”) in unblocked garter stitch. Row gauge grows significantly with blocking. Gauge is not critical, but to achieve similar dimensions to the model, this gauge is desirable.

The model is 145cm in length and 34cm in width and widest point, and used 115g of yarn in total. It has been blocked and allowed to relax for several days before these measurements were taken.

Fémmina was designed for supply drop three of The Loopsmith Brigade, 2017.