Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Valley Snow

 Ya'll should get excited because this pattern is amazing and has wonderful memories that inspired it! Valley Snow is a traditional triangle shape that highlights three different sections of the same lace pattern. 

Let me tell you a the inspiration behind my new shawl pattern. There's an urban legend where I grew up in Sacramento Valley that it only snows once every 10 years. In my 28 years of living there I believe it snowed twice. What did happen every year is the dropping of the almond blossoms which cover the ground like snow. Valley Snow was inspired by the slow drop of petals from the almond trees; the only snow that valley ever really saw. 

For the collaboration I reached out to From Me to Yarn with the inspiration photos below and explained what I was looking for in colors and what shape/patterns I would be using to evoke the feelings and nature of falling petals. 


I was looking for the soft colors of the petals and then slowly getting darker as the shawl gets larger and more lace is added to each section. This color change would represent more and more petals falling through out the season. This is what Jessie sent to me and it was perfect! 


With these colors and the inspiration of falling petals I started working on my design! This was one of the first times that I started with a full drawn picture of the shawl will look like and represent. Usually I'm a bit more freeform with my designing. The end result looks so amazing and accurate than what I imagined! 


Valley Snow uses a fingering weight yarn with approx 900 yards total. If you want the same colors I used Jessie has a kit in her shop with a free shipping code! If a kit isn't in your budget or you already have yarn in stash than any fingering weight would work, though probably not a self striping. I think that a solid or a tonal color would look amazing and really show off the lace transition.