A Shawl to Knit for the Generations

This design was inspired by a saying in Judaism, L’dor v’dor, which means, “from generation to generation,” when translated to English. Typically, it is understood to mean the transmission of the culture’s values, rituals, traditions, and history to the next generation.

While designing and knitting the Generations Shawl, designer Jessica Ays says, she spent time thinking of the things we pass down from one generation to the next – the things that have been passed down to her, and those she is passing down.

I thought of the cookbook that my cousin Jenna made for my Bridal Shower filled with secret family recipes, including some in my Grandma Faye’s own handwriting. I thought of my Aunt Arlene who taught me how to crack an egg to help make her famous matzoh ball soup. I thought of my Mom and her favorite chocolate cake we’d make from scratch on rainy days and snow days … she always let me lick the batter from the bowl after we put it in the oven.
I thought of the little ways I pass on my values and traditions to my children, from the holiday traditions to the everyday little life lessons about how to be a good and kind human.

This asymmetrical shawl starts out with just a few stitches and is the perfect pattern for a gorgeous solid, tonal, or very gently variegated skein of fingering weight yarn. Want a larger shawl? Just keep knitting! This shawl is simple to adjust for a larger size by continuing on with additional repeats.

The lace is simple to follow, and the only stitches used are knits, purls, yarn overs, k2tog, ssk, and m1L.

The pattern is fully written and the repeat is charted, so you can take your pick to work from! And a stitch count table is included to help keep you on track.

It’s worked in superfine yarn, but you could also make a bigger shawl just by using heavier-weight yarn and larger knitting needles. It’s totally up to you!

You can grab the pattern for this pretty shawl on Ravelry or Payhip.

[Photo: Jennifer Ays]

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I feel like I haven’t shared many knitting machine patterns lately, probably because I haven’t been using my knitting machines much lately. (I finally made space for them to live on the bookshelf in my office, and now that they have a “place” it’s almost like I forgot they existed for a while.)

But I did recently make a little cat bed, that surely would work for a small dog, too.

This one uses two different sizes of knitting machine: a larger one (it could be any in the 40-48 needle range) and a 22 pin.

The larger machine is used in flat panel mode to make the bottom pillow like part of the bed, while the smaller machine makes a long tube that is used around the edges as the sort of walls of the cat bed.

For stuffing I used a bit of leftover quilt batting for the pillow, and some cut up old T-shirts for the tube.

You can use any worsted weight yarn you like (I used two colors of Big Twist Pound+, which comes in huge skeins that weigh more than a pound). Acrylic or cotton yarn is nice for washablity, but you’ll be cranking for a while so make sure you use a yarn your machine likes so it’s not too much of a struggle.

You can grab the pattern for this cat bed over at Our Daily Craft. I’m sorry to report the pictured is as close as a cat has gotten to it so far, but maybe your cats like to be cozy more than mine do?

If you’re looking for more options for cute handmade places for your cats and little dogs to rest, check out this roundup of knit pet beds. I still want to knit one by hand but the machine version was definitely a faster option (especially good since my cats are ungrateful).

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