A letter from Peggy about the knit shawls
For forty winters I would not wear a shawl, because I thought a shawl meant a rocking chair. This is the first one I have ever written a letter about.
Six things I have noticed since a cold, windy afternoon at a Christmas tree farm up near the Red River, from a woman who spent most of that day holding her cardigan shut with one arm.
Peggy Dalton · Customer · Austin, Texas · 5 min read
Let me tell you who is talking before I tell you anything else. I am Peggy, I am 63, and I live in Austin, Texas, with my husband Frank. I am not a fashion person. And for most of my life I have had one firm rule about shawls, which is that I was not old enough for one. My grandmother had a shawl. It was crocheted, it had fringe that caught on every cabinet knob in the house, and it lived on the back of her rocking chair. That was what the word meant to me.
The ones I am writing about are knit shawls from Iris and Nora, a small boutique here in Austin that has been quietly dressing women like us for a few years now. Mine is the Ruby, a deep burgundy triangle shawl that ties at the front. The other one I will tell you about is the Irene, the same shawl in winter white, which is wrapped in my closet right now with my daughter’s name on it. There are sixteen of them in the collection, solids and stripes, and I have looked at every one of them more than once.
Here is how I found them. Last year Frank and I spent Thanksgiving with his cousin at Lake Kiowa, up in Cooke County, and the Saturday after, the four of us drove out past Callisburg to one of those farms where you pick your own Christmas tree and cut it yourself. The first real norther of the year had come through the night before. It was gray, the wind was coming straight down off the Red River, and I had on my long gray cardigan, which has no buttons, so I spent the whole afternoon holding it shut across my front with one arm. I had brought my good pashmina too. It blew off into the mud before we got past the second row.
Mine, at the same farm that December, when we drove back up for the cousin’s Christmas party and she wanted a second tree for the porch. Both hands on the tree, and the shawl did not move.
Two rows over there was a woman about my age holding up the trunk of a little pine while her husband sawed at the bottom of it. She had both hands on that tree and her shoulders square to the wind, and around her shoulders was a deep red shawl, knotted once at the front, two long points hanging down. It never moved. Not when she leaned, not when the tree came loose and she staggered back a step laughing. Her name, I found out later at the cider table, is Rosalie. So, with my cardigan in one fist and a cup of cider in the other, I asked her, plainly.
Two piles
I have looked at shawls for forty years and walked away from every one, because what is out there falls into two piles. There is the grandmother shawl, crocheted, with fringe, which looks like it came off the back of a rocking chair and says so to everyone in the room. And there is the slippery one, the pashmina or the big soft scarf, which looks very nice for about a minute and then spends the rest of the day sliding off one shoulder, so you go everywhere with one hand pinned to your chest like you are saying the Pledge of Allegiance. So for forty winters I wore a cardigan and held it shut.
For forty winters I chose between looking like my grandmother and holding my clothes on with one hand. Rosalie had both hands on a Christmas tree.
The afternoon it came. I spread it out on the bed to see the shape of it, and then I tied it on in front of the mirror.
I ordered mine on my phone in the truck before we were back at the lake house, and it was waiting on the porch when we got home to Austin. I wore it all last winter and I got it back out the first cool morning this fall. Going by all those days, it comes down to six things, and I will give them to you plainly.
A knot instead of a hand
This is the whole thing, really. The two front ends cross over and you tie them once at the front, and the boutique says that keeps it neat and secure and in place all day. That has been my experience exactly. I can carry a casserole into church, pull a grandbaby onto my lap, or stand in the wind at a ballgame, and it stays where I put it. There are no buttons to fuss with and nothing to pin. For the first time in my life I have two free hands and warm shoulders at the same time.
I play the piano at our church and I have tried every wrap there is. This is the first one that has not slid off by the second hymn.
Nancy W., LindsayWarm right where the wind gets you
The boutique says the soft knitted feel keeps your shoulders and neck warm on chilly fall and winter days, and that is where the cold gets me, every time, across the shoulders and down the back of the neck. The long edge sits up softly around the back of your neck like a collar, and the point covers your back. At the tree farm Rosalie was warm in a plain blouse and that shawl. I was cold in a cardigan.
Our church hall is cold from October to Easter. I keep the gray one on the back of my chair and I have stopped bringing a coat inside.
Barbara T., MyraIt goes over everything you already own
The boutique says you can wear it over a coat, a sweater or a dress, knotted at the front or just draped over your shoulders, and I have done all of those. Over a plain sweater and jeans it makes the outfit look like I planned it. Over my navy church dress it looks dressed up. On the coldest mornings I tie it over my coat. It is not a whole new wardrobe. It is one thing that makes the clothes I have look better and feel warmer.
I wear the burgundy over my black dress for every Christmas party now. My husband says I look like a Christmas card, and he means it nicely.
Kathy L., WhitesboroLight enough to keep in your purse
The boutique calls it a lightweight layer that adds warmth without the bulk, so it is easy to pack in your bag. That is true, and it matters more than I thought it would. I roll mine up in the bottom of my big purse for restaurants and doctors’ offices, and it comes out looking fine. A cardigan you carry around all day in your arms. This, you just have with you.
The knot, up close. One tie, and it holds. That is cider from the stand by the barn.
I took the white one on a trip to see my sister and it rode in my handbag the whole way. It did not look like it had been in a handbag.
Judy M., CollinsvilleOne size, and it really does fit
It is one size, and the boutique gives the measurement plainly, a generous 73 by 30 inches, which they say wraps comfortably around every shape and size. I am not a small woman and I have stopped believing the words one size fits all. This time it is true. There is plenty to tie at the front with two long points left hanging, and nothing pulls or strains. It also means it is the easiest present you will ever buy, because you do not have to guess anybody’s size.
I bought three for Christmas, for my sister, my daughter and my daughter-in-law, and did not have to ask a single one of them what size she wears.
Sharon D., Pilot PointSixteen of them, and a Christmas present that gets worn
There are sixteen in the collection, solid colors and stripes and some that are half and half. Rosalie told me at the cider table that she has the red one for every day and a white one she keeps for Christmas Eve. This Christmas I have picked my daughter in Belton the Irene, the winter white. She has two little ones and her hands are never free, and she is always cold in church. The boutique describes it as a clean winter white, and against her dark hair it is going to be lovely.
The Irene. I tried my daughter’s on by our tree before I wrapped it. I am not sorry.
Mine and hers, side by side on the guest bed.
I got the burgundy for me and the white for my mother, who is 88. She wears it to the beauty shop every Friday and tells everyone her daughter bought it.
Donna F., TiogaThe Ruby and the Irene, against what used to hang on my coat hooks
You can keep holding your cardigan shut, like I did for forty years. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
A cardigan held shut with one arm
A pashmina that slid off into the mud
A fringed shawl that said rocking chair
Cold across the shoulders
Too bulky to carry, so left in the car
One knot at the front, and it stays put
Soft knit that keeps your shoulders and neck warm
No fringe, no buttons, nothing to fuss with
Over a coat, a sweater or a dress
Light enough to roll up in your purse
About the price
The Ruby is $41.95, and it was $84.00. The Irene is the same, and every shawl in the collection is half what it was. When I saw that I read the whole page twice looking for the catch. I have not found one. It came with free shipping, it looked like the picture, and it went straight on.
My daughter’s, in its box on the kitchen table. The tag is still blank, because I cannot decide what to write.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that these come in small runs and the most popular colors go first, mostly before Christmas. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that I have owned a great many cardigans and scarves over the years, and this is the first thing I have put around my shoulders and then forgotten about, in the good way, all day.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over two hundred of them, sitting at 4.3 stars, which sounded like real women rather than robots. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women’s words.
If you have spent your winters holding your clothes on with one hand, and you have a daughter or a sister or a mother to buy for this Christmas, this is where I would start. Take a look before the color you want sells through, because once this stock is gone, it is gone. And if you are ever at a Christmas tree farm up by the Red River on a cold Saturday and you see two grandmothers in red shawls holding up a tree, one of them is Rosalie, and the other one is me.
Peggy
THE KNIT SHAWL COLLECTION
- 16 knit shawls, from the burgundy Ruby to the winter white Irene
- Easy tie front that stays in place, no buttons to fuss with
- Soft knit that keeps your shoulders and neck warm
- Over a coat, a sweater or a dress
- One size, a generous 73 x 30 inches
- Free shipping
Sale on now, half off. Once this stock is gone, it is gone.