The shawl was designed for Miss Babs armchair travel trip to Sri Lanka!

Featuring two beautiful colors of Miss Babs fingering weight “Yummy” this shawl creates an intricate homage to the elaborate Ves costumes worn by the traditional Kandyan dancers of Sri Lanka.

By combining a slip stitch mosaic technique with lace you can create this piece while holding only one color of yarn at a time. Essentially, you are knitting stripes. Fancy stripes, but stripes nonetheless.

For any knitter with lace experience this pattern should prove engaging and a tiny bit challenging. I would not recommend it for a novice.

If you would like to see this pattern in action please visit my YouTube channel Watch Barbara knit for a video pattern tour!

“Sri Lanka. The mere name of the country evokes exotic thoughts, smells and visions. When Miss Babs challenged me to travel there virtually, I did what I assume anyone would do. I started Googling.

I fell down a rabbit hole of beautiful images of a colorful and dynamic land. The temples and bazaars; festivals and performances all jumped through my screen. As usual I was drawn to the art and craft of the people and discovered that the Sri Lankans infuse color into every aspect of their lives.

One set of images that particularly inspired me were photographs of the Kandyan dance performances. The movement and costumes of the dancers are amazing, particularly for the men.

They wear an elaborate costume called the Ves which includes body pieces and embossed silver headdresses that stand proudly up and out from the head. The highly textured patterns in this shawl are my attempt to mimic the patterning found in the headdresses.

I hope you enjoy this pattern!“

This shawl was initially designed for the 2015 Miss Babs Armchair Traveling Knitting Tour, and will be exclusive for six months.