Lucia Marie
By Corrado Lark

The Needs:

• US 5 (3.75mm) 32-40” circular needle. If you want a drapier shawl, go up a needle size to a US 6 (4mm) needle.
• A clip on stitch marker to mark increasing side and a darning needle.
• Yarn A: Shirsty Cat Design’s 100% BFL Superwash Sport in colorway “Dust Bunny Slippers”, (287yd/100g).
• Yarn B: Same as Yarn A in the original sample (287yd, 100g). Use a different color if you want, either way is written into the pattern.
• Yarn C: Shirsty Cat Design’s Mohair DK, 75% Mohair 20% Wool 5% Silk (240yd/100g) in the “Callipygian” colorway. This yarn is truly special, it’s like a sport weight held with silk mohair together without having to bother holding them together. It makes knitting this design much easier.
• Gauge: Not critical but may impact the amount of yarn used.
• Finished Dimensions: Approx. 85-90” in length and 11” at its widest. Length depends on how long you want to knit the last repeat.

Stitches/Techniques Used:

Knits, purls, increases, decreases, picking up stitches, yarnover/k2tog simple lace, short rows. Perfect for the intermediate knitter or an advanced beginner who enjoys short rows and unique shawl shaping.

The Backstory:

My Nonni (Grandmother) Lucia immigrated to America from Sicily in the 1950’s in search of better medical care. She had been married very young to my grandfather, and though she had a few pregnancies, couldn’t bear a healthy child. She and her sister, Marie, decided to emigrate with their husbands for a better life.

On the boat, my Nonni prayed to have just one child live. She made a deal that if she had one, she wouldn’t try for more and would be happy with just receiving the one child. And within a few weeks of coming to America, she had my father, Sebastian. A healthy baby boy, and keeping her promise, she only had the one.

Within two weeks of my Nonni, Marie had my second cousin Sal. The two sisters, their husbands, and new baby boys all moved into a two family house in Little Italy in East Hartford, CT. My Nonni still lives there with Marie and her husband Paul, as my grandfather Corrado passed a few years ago. I dedicate this design to my Sicilian family’s journey, and how their American dream laid the path for little old me to create such a fantastic life creating here in the Land of the Free.

This design wreaks of old Italian style with the fuzzy mohair and unique shaping. The design is mostly worked in alternating lines, first as two attached triangles, which then become a convex quadrilateral, and finish off with short rows on one side until you’re out of yarn. It’s definitely an adventurous design, and took a lot of work with testers and tech editors to get it where it needed to be. In the end, I couldn’t be prouder of this one!