The Seville Shawl

 I've been exploring Seville, Spain virtually recently. You can find related posts on my blogs for bicycling and kitchen gardening.  I visited Seville in the spring of 1977 for Semana Santa (Holy Week) during my junior year of college.  It was a whirlwind tour through Toledo, Granada, Seville and Valencia, and I am sure my friend and touring partner and I didn't see even one hundredth of the sights we should have seen.  

My memories of Seville are the quintessential images of Spain.  Flamenco dancers, whitewashed villages with trailing flowering vines, colorful geometric tiled walls, narrow streets with ironwork balconies, and orange blossoms.   

The shawl is dramatic in the photo above.  Mantoncillos are woven shawls with fringed edgings that are typically embroidered with flowers. Mantones are the lace shawls that women wear on their heads for weddings, bullfights, and funerals, which are typically worn with a peineta (comb) for the full effect.  

These shawls are somewhat more formal. Knitted and crocheted shawls seem to be a little less formal, although they can still have dramatic fringe. 

 

Fourty-five years later, I set out to find out what is going on in the knitting world in Seville.  La Merceria (lamerceria.com) shows a few free patterns on its web site.  

An online-only shop for yarns is Lana y Telar.  In a residential neighborhood, fellow blogger Chain Twenty posted about her visit to the dye works.  

Devanalana is a Sevillana knit designer and blogger.  Her blog is in Spanish, but using google translate, I was able to understand that she is interested in ethical fashion.  She offers knitting classes.  

There are 14 patterns with "Seville" in the name in Ravelry, ranging from a macrame wall hanging to a shawl to a bolero to a cabled sweater.  The one that most embodied the feeling of Seville for me is the one featured on the cover of Simply Knitting September 2010 with its lace borders.  And, as a plus-sized person, I was grateful for the large size range.  

I also found numerous patterns containing "Sevilla" in the name or description, and I especially like this shawl pattern incorporating various types of lace.  However, I would want to rewrite the pattern to allow it to be knitted on the knitting machine, as I would be driven crazy trying to handknit such a large piece.