About the craft
The Centre – the Very Essence of a Down Shawl.
When starting to knit a down shawl, it is important to decide on the pattern of its central part. This is because the centre is the main element of the composition of any shawl. The centre of the item is always framed by a narrow band of grid, followed by an openwork border.
Traditionally, warm shawls have a dense centre, gossamer shawls and stoles an openwork one, while kerchiefs can be either, at the craftswoman's discretion. But rules are made to be broken. Paying tribute to changing fashion and yielding to women's desire to look beautiful without feeling cold, craftswomen began knitting warm shawls with an openwork centre.
An experienced down knitter will easily knit absolutely any pattern and compose the item competently. But the openwork ornament will as a rule be based on a geometric pattern. Namely the rhombus – a traditional component. The rhombus is a symbol of the sun in folk art, replacing the circle, which is rather difficult to knit with needles. But the rhombus has kept and carries that meaning, name and significance.
There are 3 large groups of shawls by ornament:
1. Shawls with a solid centre. Their entire central fabric is evenly decorated with a single pattern – "little fish", "mouse track", "peas", "honeycomb".
2. Single-circle shawls – a central rhombus is inscribed in the square of the grid, and repeating pattern elements fill and frame this rhombus.
3. Five-circle shawls – probably the most difficult to knit, within the power only of very experienced down knitters. They consist of five rhombuses – one central one in the middle and 4 more at the sides. The composition resembles a cross, in which one side of each of the four rhombuses adjoins a face of the central rhombus.
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