The Little Match Girl is a story by Hans Christian Andersen from 1845. On a cold New Years Eve a poor girl goes out barefoot in the snow to sell matches. She is freezing, but is afraid to go home because her stepfather will beat her for not selling any matches.
To warm up she lit matches and saw beautiful sights in the lights – food, warmth, family and her dead grandmother. They disappeared as soon as the match burned out. She lit all the matches so her grandmother would not disappear, and the grandmother took her hand and they flew off to heaven. In the morning the girl was found dead, having frozen to death with a smile on her face. No one understood the joy she felt before dying.
The border of the shawl shows the matchsticks and angels welcoming her to heaven, and the body has little flames for the lit matches.
The shawl comes in two different sizes. It’s knit with 1 skein of Anzula cloud, which is a light fingering weight yarn. The small size uses 450 yds, and the large size 500 yds. (Shown in size large) I used the colour periwinkle, which is an icy blue that I thought was perfect for the theme.
The Little Match Girl was the fourth shawl in the Fairy Tale Lace e-book.
The e-book is available for CDN $20
And if you’d just like a copy of The Little Match Girl, it’s available in PDF format for CDN $7.00
This is so pretty. This is one of my favorite Christmas/New Years stories. It’s so sad, and yet so very beautiful.