A Giant Minnow

Hello Hello! 

The blog was down much longer than I intended. My house move (back at the end of September) took a lot more energy than I was expecting, and then there was a family vacation, and a whole lot of life happened in between. Anyway, here I am! And here’s my knitting.

This is a version of my Minnow shawl pattern knit up in yarns with historical significance.

Back in the glory days of living in Shanghai, there were always these far-flung odd places that you’d hear people talking about - e.g. The Curio Shop, the Cashmere Market, the Wholesale Western Food Market - where you could get things like Mao-era enamel basins, insane deals on yarn, and whole wheels of gouda cheese respectively. These places were also ephemeral. I remember going to find something called the Ghost Market (reputed to have lovely handmade baskets) only to find a freshly-bulldozed pile of rubble.

Anyway, in the last few days before a dear friend returned to her country of origin, a small but intrepid bunch of knitters headed out to the Cashmere Market to see what she could gather up and stash in her sea shipment, and what we could get our hands on, before the market coincidentally closed forever.

This shawl is knit from the yarn from that day. It’s huge and fluffy and is like a warm brioche hug from those lovely friends on that bitterly cold, dry, and dusty day. And oh goodness does it make me miss them.