Dedicated to Dorothy Day, another great woman.
Here she is reading at the farm in Easton, PA
I knit this as if it were 5 panels (but all at once, not sewn together). Three were almost the same except the front two had small crosses near the bottom while the center one had the large cross in the back.
Between them were the two candle panels, which made me think of Dorothy Day, because she is the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. I've lived in the Peter Clavier house in Philly and met my friends there who now run the House of Grace, where they operate a free clinic for the poor in one of the "bad" neighborhoods in the city, and are starting one up in Haiti for the desperately poor.
On TV if someone is Catholic, seems like sooner or later they'll be lighting candles for some reason!
The flame is a take-off on the candle flame pattern, which by itself makes a lovely shawl, but I spaced them out a bit and narrowed them some to make room for the candle sticks.
I'm still charting this one, it's not for the faint-of-heart but not too bad, the three similar panels are easy and the candle one is a lot of repeating of simple patterns, but easy to lose your place in.
Here's what I have so far and I'll update this as I get more time to finish it.
You can think of this shawl as 5 panels all knit at the same time (or maybe do it as a group project and each person knit one panel). The first and last panels are identical, or maybe mirror opposites, simply knit in a stockinette stitch with a small cross near the bottom. The second and fourth panels are the candle panels, and the center panel is very similar to the first and last except with a larger cross pattern centered on the upper part.
Candle Panels
This makes use of a "lifted increase" (thank you my knitlist friends for telling me the name of that one!) around the candle flames so there aren't any unsightly "holes" where we don't want them. It is an unusual stitch but pretty easy to do, especially on the purl ones, but make sure the needle goes into the stitch from the top down)
Row 1: p3, k, p3
Row 2: k3, p, k3
Row 3: p3, k3 into 1*, p3 *[k 3 into 1 = knit, yo, knit into the same stitch]
Row 4: k3, p3, k3
Row 5: p3, k, k3 into 1, k, p3
Row 6: k3, p5, k3
Row 7: p3, k2, k3 into 1, k2, p3
Row 8: k3, p7, k3
Row 9: p3, k3, k3 into 1, k3, p3
Row 10: k3, p9, k3
Row 11: p2, u*, k9, u, p2 *[u = pick up the "bump" of the stitch beneath the current one on the needle, purl that, slip it off, purl the current one as usual - makes an invisible increase]
Row 12: k4, p9, k4
Row 13: u, p2, u, k3, k3 tog*, k3, u, p2, u *[k 3 tog your favorite way, mine is to slip two stitches together from the hand side of the needle (not the point side) then knit the next stitch then pass the two slipped stitches together over the knit one - makes the center one come out on top]
Row 14: k6, p7, k6
Row 15: u, p, k, p2, u, k2, k3 tog, k2, u, p2, k, p, u (you should have 21 stitches now)
Row 16: k3, p, k4, p5, k4, p, k3 (still 21)
Row 17: p3, k3 into 1, p4, k, k3 tog, k, p4, k3 into 1, p3 (19 stitches)
Row 18: k3, p3, k4, p3, k4, p3, k3 (23 stitches)
Row 19: p3, k, k3 into 1, k, p4, k3 tog, p4, k, k3 into 1, k, p3
Row 20: k3, p5, k4, p, k4, p5, k3 (25 stitches)
***************THE REPEATING PATTERN STARTS HERE*******************
BLUE IS THE LEFT CANDLE PATTERN, BLACK IS THE RIGHT CANDLE PATTERN (which is the left candle pattern, reversed), AND RED IS THE CANDLESTICK PATTERN - Notice that there are two stitches between each candlestick once there are more than one of them - they are purled on the right side and knit on the wrong side.
Row 21: [p3, k2, k3 into 1, k2, p 2 tog], [ssk, yo, k, yo, k 2 tog], [p 2 tog, k2, k3 into 1, k2, p3]
Row 22: [k3, p7, k], [p5], [k, p7, k3] = 27
Row 23: [p3, k3, k3 into 1, k3, p], [ssk, yo, k, yo, k 2 tog], [p, k3, k3 into 1, k3, p3]
Row 24: [k3, p9, k], [p5], [k, p9, k3] = 31
Row 25: [p3, k9, p], [ssk, yo, k, yo, k 2 tog], [p, k9, p3]
Row 27: [k3, p9, k], [p5], [k, p9, k3] = 31
Row 28: [u, p, u, k3, k3 tog, k3, u], [ssk, yo, k, yo, k 2 tog], [u, k3, k3 tog, k3, u, p, u]
Row 29: [k5, p7, k2], [p5], [k2, p7, k5] = 33
Row 30: [u, p3, u, k2, k3 tog, k2, u, p], [ssk, yo, k, yo, k 2 tog], [p, u, k2, k3 tog, k2, u, p3, u]
Row 31: [k3, p, k3, p5, k3], [p5], [k3, p5, k3, p, k3] = 35
Row 32: [p3, k3 into 1, p2, u, k, k3 tog, k, u, p2], [ssk, yo, k, yo, k 2 tog], [p2, u, k, k3 tog, k, u, p2, k3 into 1, p3]
Row 33: [k3, p3, k4, p3, k4], [p5], [k4, p3, k4, p3, k3] = 39
Row 34: [p3, k, k3 into 1, k, p4, k3 tog, p4], [ssk, yo, k, yo, k 2 tog], [p4, k3 tog, p4, k, k3 into 1, k, p3]
Row 35: [k3, p5, k4, p, k4], [p5], [k4, p, k4, p5, k3] = 37
Row 36: [p3, k2, k3 into 1, k2, p 2 tog], [ssk, yo, k, yo, k 2 tog], p2, [ssk, yo, k, yo, k 2 tog], p2, [ssk, yo, k, yo, k 2 tog], [p2 tog, k2, k3 into 1, k2, p3] = 39
(this is one flame pattern on each side with three candlesticks in the middle)
Continue until there are 7 flames on the panel, then don't start any new ones and on each right side row do a u increase at the beginning and end, purl (on the right side, k on the wrong side) until you get to the candlesticks, and from the last candlestick to the end of the panel (don't forget the u increase at the end).
This will depend on gauge, but when you get near the end, like 3" or so, stop purling between candlesticks but repeat the candlestick pattern one more row (with two knits between each instead of two purls), from then on, just knit across on the right side, purl on the wrong side. That will set it up for the nice edge. I did 14 rows of candlestick pattern for the shortest candle (including the row that had knit between instead of purl).
This pattern is continued here: http://prayershawlministries.blogspot.com/2008/07/dorothy-day-shawl-part-ii.html
Very pretty--I like Dorothy Day also.
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