A call for literary-themed submissions from Sanguine Gryphon combined with the idea of Mrs Whatsit (an angel disguised as a tramp in Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time) to inspire this shawl. Mrs Whatsit doesn’t use difficult stitches, but it does require a fair amount of focus and an ability to read your knitting. First published in 2011, the charts have been thoroughly reworked and the pattern shifted to use worsted weight yarn.

Instructions are both fully written and charted out. This shawl has an unusual structure; you begin at the nape and knit out, much like a neck-down shawl. When the shoulder depth is reached, the center portion is bound off, and each ‘wing’ is worked outward separately. Due to the nature of the increases & decreases, the only time markers are used in this pattern are to note the BO’s of the Center Panel.

Blocked dimensions are 29cm/11.5” by 180cm/72” with a center point depth of 40cm / 16”.

“It seemed small for Meg’s idea of a tramp… it was completely bundled up in clothes. Several scarves of assorted colors were tied about the head, and… A shocking pink stole was knotted about a rough overcoat, and black rubber boots covered the feet.”
“…a pair of wings…made of rainbows, of light upon water, of poetry.”

A Wrinkle In Time, Madeleine L’Engle