Justifiably Proud

Happy Pride month!

I’m feeling mixed emotions this year as June rolls around. I can remember years when this month brought hope and optimism for the advancements being made in human rights and specifically for those in the LGBTQIA+ community…. these days I feel more than a bit concerned.

But as I’ve said before, when the world’s problems seem overwhelming, we can do one small thing. So here’s mine — and it’s not really a small thing, it’s a pretty big thing: a great big, rainbow-colored, celebrate-who-you-are knitting project I’ve named Pride Goeth Before the Shawl.

This pattern is the latest installment in my annual fundraising effort on behalf of three nonprofit organizations that are working to benefit and protect the LGBTQIA+ community: the Human Rights Campaign, the Trevor Project, and Knit the Rainbow. (You may recall my Proud to Be sock pattern from last year, the first in the effort). Proceeds from the pattern’s sales in the month of June will be divided up among the three organizations when you purchase it on either my Ravelry or Payhip shops.

Pride Goeth (for short) has been a labor of love to write and a joy to knit. Back around the beginning of the year I began working with Julia at Knitterly Things on the yarn; I chose eight of her vibrant semi-solid sock yarn colors to make a rainbow in colors that appealed to me. (You’ll note my preferences toward the cooler tones.) I’ve been so happy about the way the project has been knitting up, and many of you have been, too. I’ve had such wonderful comments each time I shared a sneak preview, it was hard to hold off on showing the whole thing until today!

In developing this pattern I wanted to create something that kept the colors distinct but also allowed some interplay between them. The textured slip-stitch patterning I eventually chose allows each color to play with its neighbors a bit: though each section is distinctly identifiable, they blend and interact in a way that feels friendly, hopeful and open.

I designed the pattern to be flexible and work with many different yarn amounts and options: You can chose the same colors I did; make your own color combination of eight of Vesper Sock Yarn’s many Heel & Toe Sock Yarn mini skeins; work with four full skeins of sock yarn; or even use twelve of the smaller 20 or 25g mini skeins that a few of us might have around from an Advent pack past. (Anyone? No? Just me, then? 😉)

I’ve included instructions for all those options, as well as guidelines for going off-piste if you want to use a wildly different amount of yarn. The pattern also includes suggestions for choosing colors to create one of the other Pride flags such as the Trans, Bi, Nonbinary, Gay, Lesbian, Pansexual, and a number of other Pride combinations. Any way you put it together, it creates a beautiful big hug of a shawl.