Intertwined, a cozy textured triangular shawl designed by Snickerdoodle Knits (that's me!), is now available for purchase, and I'm so excited to share all about the "behind the design" inspiration for the shawl. The Intertwined Shawl was originally designed for the release of Six and Seven Fiber's newest yarn base: Rocky Mountain Targhee. This is a 100% nonsuperwash Targhee yarn that is completely sourced in the Rocky Mountains: from the sheep, to the fiber dyeing, and then the spinning of the yarn at the fiber mill.
As I started swatching for the Intertwined Shawl, I knew I wanted to create a design that somehow related to my friendship with the yarn dyer, Rachel of Six and Seven Fiber. And as I thought about friendship, I couldn't help but think of the difficult emotions that I store around the idea of friendship, because so often friendships feel difficult… both finding friends and keeping friends.
Rachel and I were “in real life” friends before I’d been introduced to the world of knitting on Instagram, before I knew about hand-dyed yarn, and before I’d ever even thought of knitwear designing as a job. My spouse and I spent two summers in Denver for internships, and during the school year, we lived about two hours away. During that time, Rachel became a really good friend to me and an important part of my life. When I moved over 22 hours across the country, our friendship became a bit more distant, but we continue to stay in touch through our fiber-y businesses.
As I was thinking about our friendship and swatching for this shawl design (I knew it had to include brioche with the colors Rachel sent me!), the word “intertwined” came to mind.
Our lives are all connected, sometimes only by a few stitches, sometimes knit close together.
The brioche in the Intertwined Shawl represents living parallel lives, and yet they are connected. Sometimes it seems we’re on a completely different path compared to someone or something else, but their influence is still there, always in the background. The smocking texture represents keeping in touch with others. For most friendships in life, we aren’t spending 100% of our time with our friends. But we stay connected, and those conversations and experiences tie us together.
No one bug, plant, animal, or human can live entirely in its own ecosystem without being connected to, surrounded by, influenced by, and helped by other living organisms in that same ecosystem. In nature, we can see how the extinction of a species impacts other species, even if they were seemingly independent of one another. So it is in our living as humans, and this is why so many things are not just black and white: everything is interconnected. No one event stands entirely on its own. No one human stands entirely on their own.
We are intertwined.
If you also feel that friendship can be a bit difficult, know you aren't alone. As I was talking a bit about friendships in this Instagram post, I shared a poll in my Instagram stories, and 90% of folks said that friendships - making or keeping friends - feel difficult!
Learn more about the Intertwined Shawl knitting pattern, and get the links to purchase the pattern here. Have a knitting friend that would enjoy the Intertwined Shawl pattern? Let them know you're thinking of them by sending them this link, or gifting the pattern on Ravelry! 💛