Dust Devil Shrug

I was out in Black Rock Desert for my residency in May. The unusual amount of rain we had this spring made the desert beautiful, green and lush. It was a beautiful time to be out there, but not indicative of normal at all.

At the end of my two-week stay, the rain stopped and the desert began drying up. I finally made it out onto the playa (just 100 feet, but still!), and the dust became dry and fine once again.

I was surprised at all the dust devils that I began seeing on the playa and surrounding areas. The tall pillars of dust at first looked like smoke but then I realized they were dust devils. I assume that the preponderance of dust devils is normal in Black Rock Desert, but to me they were a new phenomenon during my stay.

I wanted to create the swirling dust devil rising into the sky off the playa in a shrug that put you in the middle of the dust devil. I like the effect of the shrug and with two strands of bulky it was a breeze to knit up. When the pattern is released I hope to see a lot of these, or at least I will be making a few more.