Mr. Wednesday
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$7.00
$7.00
I’ve been a mythology nerd pretty much my entire life. Greek, Norse, Japanese, you name it, I love it all. So, when I picked up Neil Gaiman’s excellent book American Gods, I was immediately enthralled by his modern take on my mythological favorites. I found Mr. Wednesday, Gaiman’s sly, American version of Odin, to be particularly magnetic. What con will he pull next? As I followed Mr. Wednesday, his ravens, and the other gods through the novel, a design started taking shape in my head, heavily influenced by Mr. Wednesday’s Norse origins as Odin. I greatly enjoyed using two of my favorite knitting techniques - beading and mosaic knitting - to weave different aspects of Mr. Wednesday/Odin’s mythology into this shawl design:
Techniques Used with Tutorials Provided:
Garter Tab Cast-On
Mosaic Knitting
Beaded Knitting
Decrease Bind-Off
Yarn Used:
Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light (Fingering; 100% merino; 420 yd 384 m per 100 g skein)
Main Color (MC): Stargazing; 1 skein
Contrast Color (CC): Silver Fox; 1 skein
Needles:
US 4 / UK 9 / 3.5 mm circular needle
40” (102 cm) or longer
Beading Supplies:
#8 / 0.90 mm crochet hook
44 Size 6º clear, silver-lined beads
Notions:
Removable stitch markers, yarn needle
Yardage Estimates from Sample:
MC: 411 yd (376 m), 98 g
CC: 252 yd (230 m), 60 g
Final Measurements:
Length: 19.5” (50 cm)
Width: 60” (152 cm)
This pattern has been tech edited and test knit.
- Beads are used to represent Odin’s one, glittering glass eye.
- Huginn and Muninn, Odin’s ravens, are my favorite so they are featured prominently on the shawl border.
- Yggdrasil, the Norse Tree of Life, is tightly bound up with Odin in Norse mythology (and plays a huge part in American Gods) so it makes up the center medallion of the shawl border. This mosaic design is based on an ancient Norse rune representing Yggdrasil.
- The number 9 is very important in Norse mythology so you’ll find multiples of 9 all throughout the instructions for this shawl
- For colors, I chose a dark, almost iridescent blue (for Odin’s cloak and the feathers of his ravens) to go with a light, silvery gray (for Mr. Wednesday’s gray eyes and infamous gray suit).
Techniques Used with Tutorials Provided:
Garter Tab Cast-On
Mosaic Knitting
Beaded Knitting
Decrease Bind-Off
Yarn Used:
Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light (Fingering; 100% merino; 420 yd 384 m per 100 g skein)
Main Color (MC): Stargazing; 1 skein
Contrast Color (CC): Silver Fox; 1 skein
Needles:
US 4 / UK 9 / 3.5 mm circular needle
40” (102 cm) or longer
Beading Supplies:
#8 / 0.90 mm crochet hook
44 Size 6º clear, silver-lined beads
Notions:
Removable stitch markers, yarn needle
Yardage Estimates from Sample:
MC: 411 yd (376 m), 98 g
CC: 252 yd (230 m), 60 g
Final Measurements:
Length: 19.5” (50 cm)
Width: 60” (152 cm)
This pattern has been tech edited and test knit.