One of the things that is nice about living long enough to be middle-aged is that many of the things that seemed so important when you were younger begin to fall away, and you are left with only the things that are truly important.

And often, our four-legged friends assume a more prominent place in our lives, helping us in all of our activities of daily living, including crochet.

Early this past Monday, the dog of a dear friend of mine crossed over the Rainbow Bridge, leaving my friend to navigate the grief of losing a dear pet.

Meanwhile, the family cat of another friend was run over by a car.

I don’t know exactly how my friends felt, but the losses left me numb, and I decided that I wanted to create something designed to help a person grieve the loss of a pet, and that is how I came up with the idea of what I call “The Rainbow Bridge comfort shawl.”

Using a 5.5 mm hook, a skein of Red Heart Super Saver paddy green, and two skeins of Red Heart Super Saver light periwinkle that were in my stash, I started on the base of the shawl that would form the crochet canvas for additional appliqué elements.

Here is how far I got with it as of last night:

By late this morning, I had finished the basic shawl and was ready to move onto the next elements.

Using a 5.0 mm hook and various partial skeins of yarn that I have in my stash, I crocheted a sun and a rainbow:

Here is how those elements looked on the shawl before having ends woven in and being properly secured:

In addition to weaving in the ends and appliquéing the elements I have completed so far, I still have some work to do to fashion a basic cat and a basic dog that can be modified as needed, but I also think that a comfort shawl for those of us left behind when a dear pet departs this sphere is long overdue.