on july 26th, i caught ‘fiddler on the roof’ on pbs.  the scene near the end where they are all leaving because they are being forced to leave really struck me.  we see anatevka from the back in this scene with a gray shawl wrapped around her head and shoulders.  i have been wanting to make that shawl ever since.

i searched about and found nothing that i thought was even close to it.  and it’s a very simple wrap really so i thought that was odd.  then i asked around and no-one knew of anything very close to it either.  so the thinking began.

i’ve roughed out and tossed quite a few ways to go about it since then.  a few of them would have worked, but the intensity of the pattern details and the concentration you’d have to maintain to knit them made me toss them out as rough drats that were not ‘it’ yet.

i found queensland rustic wool dk on sale and bought it in rich variations of purple.  the original wrap seems to be knit of heavier wool with larger needles, so i got enough to double the yarn.

and i think i have just this weekend  swatched the right needle size and almost the right combination of stitches to make ‘sojourners’ actually come to life.

i have liked working on this so far.  i expect actually knitting it will make me thoughtful.  the feeling of being forced to leave a place (or more frequently a relationship) long before i felt ready to is something i am certainly familiar with.

it’s happened more than twice. 

i think that i tend to look ahead to what’s coming next

yet somehow i never see these leavings coming.

then i am dismal and very let down,

                                                 longing to be more content,

                                           praying to be more content,

and, God willing, i will be.

 ‘sojourners’ is taken from 11:13 of hebrews.