Full Circle, or a trio of shawls

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A few years back, while working at the Craft College, I gathered up a few of odds and sods from my stash and put on a very long mixed purple warp. The results of this weaving were three shawls. Each of the three shawls was different from the next because of the weft I used. All were woven in plain weave, all were different lengths and all were very warm and lovely after washing and finishing. Well, all but the one that has yet to be finished. The longest of the three, I will be digging it out soon, and creating a fringe, finishing it off and sending it on its way.
I know not where its home will lie, or even if it will leave my home at all. Only that the time has finally come to take it out and finish it. Pictured above is the second of the three shawls, and the smallest. The first left for its home in March of 2001. A gift.
I began this project in January of 2001. It was a messy, turbulent time in my life. I had been ill for several weeks with Pneumonia, and my marriage was in trouble. In a way these shawls were my therapy, and in a way they were my nemesis. I designed them with my mother in law’s birthday in mind, wove them and finished hers in time for her birthday in March.
Mere days after giving her the shawl, my world was turned upside down. I was served legal papers, and my battle to keep my children and my sanity began. I did not touch the shawls again for many months. As time wore on, the two remaining shawls, lay in the bottom of a trunk, waiting their final tweaking.
In April of 2002 while preparing for medieval event I was attending with the children I pulled out the trunk, and I finished the second of the three to keep wee little I warm in the spring chill.  The third shawl remains in the trunk, and waits.
In March of 2006, my world went upside down again. I fought the good fight, went back to court, and it begins again. The final shawl has been calling me, it is time. Perhaps in finishing the shawl, embellishing it, washing and owning the shawl will in some way bring this latest battle to a close, I will have come full circle, tied up the loose ends, and will be able to breathe, on my own, and steadily move on.