A few years back, a dear friend was diagnosed with a severe form of cancer. My then-4-year-old and I together designed this cowl for her. I pulled out all my super-soft silk yarns and let him pick the yarn. Then the two of us poured through my stitch dictionaries and he picked an arrowhead lace pattern. I added the optional applied lace edging and knit it up and gave it to her to keep warm and strong during her treatments.
She lost her battle with cancer in 2020. But she always had hope no matter what the future held. She was also very proud of her Italian heritage so I named this cowl Speranza in her honor, which means “Hope” in Italian. $2 from each pattern purchased will go towards a cancer charity for as long as this pattern is for sale, starting with the American Cancer Society.
This pattern has been tech edited and test knit. Lace is both charted and written.
Purchase on RavelrySizes
Small size is 24.5” 62 cm x 12.5” 32 cm with optional lace edging. 11” 28 deep without optional edging.
Large size is 60” 152.5 cm x 7” 18 cm with optional lace edging. 5.5” 14 cm deep without optional edging.
Materials
Though designed for silk, any non-fuzzy laceweight yarn should work fine. Samples knit in the following yarns: 275 (400) yards of silk laceweight yarn. Red sample uses Blue Ridge Yarns Silk Shimmer Lace, 100% silk, in the Mahogany colorway. Green sample uses ITO Yarn’s Kinu, 100% silk, in the Cobalt Green colorway.
Gauge
One repeat of the lace pattern is 1.75” 4.5 cm by .5”
1.5 cm. Save time (and your sanity) – always check your gauge.
Lace
Both lace patterns used are charted and written for your convenience. Applied lace edging is optional.