Ain’t I a Woman? A Voice for Freedom

In 1858, Sojourner Truth gave a series of Abolition speeches in the Silver Lake area of Indiana. A rumor had been circulating that she was not a woman at all, but a man. At her final talk, a man in the audience demanded that she bare her breasts to female audience members to prove her gender. The men put it to a vote, which was passed without even a call to say “nay.” The women in the audience were appalled, but Truth faced it with grace. She told the men that her breasts had suckled many white babies, often to the exclusion of her own children. Those babes had all grown to be better men than those making the demand from the audience… read more in Stories In Stitches 6.

This shawl is worked in a simple knit-and-purl pattern stitch from the top down with make-1 increases made on both sides of a center spine and yarn-over increases made at the beginning of each row. The shaping creates a triangle with a built-in hood that can be folded down as a collar.