Brighid's Mantle

Quite a while back, I got some really cute mystery yarn from a dear friend's stash and thought I knew what I would do with it right away...I was going to make a dragon amigurumi and it was going to be awesome and fun.  Hahahahaha.  That was not to be.

The yarn marinated in the stash for a while, and no, I'm not telling for how long.  We'll just say it's been a bit.  By then, the need for a cute green dragon made of a bamboo blend yarn faded, and the fascination with the idea of making my own little Brighid's Mantle began. 

Imbolc was coming, and found me making a regular vigil for Brighid every 20 days via a Ravelry group.  Reading and researching various customs and folklore for St Brigid's Day kept making references to a mantle.  You can find versions of the story here, here, and here.  I just had to make one, especially for vigil nights, and also for healing. 

I immediately thought of that yarn.   That pretty, soft, green yarn.

So I gathered up the yarn and hurried out to place the ball into one of my favorite trees in the yard for blessing on the eve of St Brigid's Day/Candlemas/Imbolc.  

Then I had to figure out what to knit it into.  It had to be knitted.  It had to be cabled.  I remembered a pretty celtic cable on a wrap from Alice Starmore's,  Aran Knitting.  Chart "C"'s cable seemed rather nice, and not too wide.  As I only had one wrapper-less ball,  I had no idea how much was there.  So I began, adding a border of 3 stitches on each side in garter stitch, slipping the first stitch with every row to the chart.  

I worked on it here and there.  And soon, I was close to finishing.  I timed its finishing to be on a "vigil night", late last month. 

 I can't wait to hold it while I keep the next one. 

My Mantle measures 4 inches by 42 inches without the fringe, post blocking.  I used almost the entire ball, save ~ one yard.  Those scraps, mostly trimmings from the fringe, will be saved for healing bundles and the like later on.  

After a bit of brainstorming, I believe this yarn to be NaturallyCaron.com  Spa in a color called Green Sleeves.  It's 75% acrylic, 25% bamboo, and I'm sure that accounts for the curl at the long edges that just won't seem to block out.