A Skakki is a traditional garter stitch Icelandic shawl. It was usually knitted in the natural colors of the sheep and often decorated with a few stripes and/or bands of openwork, gataprjón (hole knitting), at the bottom. My design has a twist to it with the decorative bands of openwork covering the entire wingspan. Each band is different: some of the motifs come from different areas in Iceland or can be found in other traditional Icelandic shawls. My Skakki is almost like a sampler! It is knitted from the top down in the manner that was common for such shawls in the Westfjords of Iceland.

The Skakki shawl was originally designed in the summer of 2017 as a prompt for the fundraising campaign of Uppspuni, Iceland’s first mini mill (you can read more about it on my blog). For this kit, I used Gilitrutt Tviband, my beautiful plied lace made of soft Icelandic lambswool: I select the wool myself from Icelandic farmers and the natural grey wool is the most difficult natural color to gather.
Wool KIT available here.