The Curse of the Claw

Many years ago in a land far away a small girl was playing with her mother's jewellery. She was delighted with what she found as she delved into the box and covered herself in strings of pearls and gold. As she looked deeper and deeper she discovered a secret compartment and inside there was a small brown box. The little girl turned it over and over, and shook it to hear what was inside. There was no sound, so she opened it slowly. A look of terror crossed her face and she let out a small gasp and snapped the box firmly shut. She raced from the room and from that moment on she never played with her mother's jewellery again.

Some years the later the mother of the little girl sighed heavily, she knew the time had come for her to choose which of her three daughters would take on the curse. It wasn't her fault, in her youth her evil step-mother had cursed her with The Claw, and now she must pass it on.... She chose the youngest, the bravest, who could bear the horror well. The strange thing was, no longer scared by The Claw, the little girl (now grown) wore it with glee, knowing the torment it would inflict on all who saw it.....

She also knitted this natty shrug to go with it.


I was laughing my head off in this pic as Scout was biting my fingers.

Mine is a slight variation on the Craftster Circular Shrug. A very easy garment to make, basically a long rectangle sewn and stretched over the shoulders. I decided to put a pattern onto it rather than working in mock rib all the way up (enough to send me mental!) so I went for this lattice stitch from Odhams Knitting Encyclopedia.







I do like it, but initially wasn't overjoyed with the fit. I would prefer the rib to start closer to my waist rather than higher up my back. I'm very aware that I have a short torso and try to choose clothes that don't highlight it. I love the high collar. This was an experiment more than anything and I think I would knit another, but would go for more length in the pattern part. I did consider cutting off the rib and elongating it (as per Areli's fantastic tutorial), but I was a bit bored of it by that point and gave up. I used about 250g of DK acrylic for it. This was actually supposed to be my Olympic warm-up, but I couldn't get the right lilac in time and ended up buying the green for the cabled cardi on a whim. That will be seeing the light of day again shortly. I can definitley see this getting a lot of wear this summer.

Psst, my mother's step-mother wasn't really evil - just as mad as a box of frogs with poor taste in jewellery. The Claw is actually a decorative kilt pin based on the traditional Scottish grouse claw pins worn way back when.