Crochet Spring Shawl

I am constantly drawn to wraps and shawls to make, I enjoy making them, they have purpose and above all I love to wear them.  Christmas, starting my own blog and a couple of commissions has stopped me making for me.  This project has been in the queue for six months. I’m excited to finally have made this Crochet Spring Shawl designed by Debbie Bliss.

I generally don’t pay for patterns, I am always searching for free ones, so for me to buy a pattern book means I like it alot.  This pattern is an exception to my general no pay rule, apart from the odd odd crochet magazine or two of course. When I stumbled across this Debbie Bliss collection I just couldn’t resist it. After much searching I found a website to buy it from, it was the only website and the last one in stock at a price I was prepared to pay, it was published back in 2012 so is a couple of years old.  The Debbie Bliss website doesn’t offer the sale of her patterns which is a little frustrating but understandable. This pattern book will now take pride of place in my pattern library and I will  covet the eleven designs it contains.  I plan to use some of the other patterns as gifts for my nieces as the style of the patterns are so right for them.   I may even tackle the dress you can see on the front cover. This will test my adherence to gauge and adjusting a pattern for sizing and I really like a pretty top for me. Another challenge and one for the project queue.

The shawl was relatively quick to  make up, its difficult to pin point how long because  I had a few projects on the go and I only make in the evenings. I did intersperse making it with researching and practicing flowers for mothers day .  If I had to estimate how long it would take it would be four to five days if you are at home or on holiday and are making this at your leisure.  I’m really pleased with the outcome, the pictures show you lots of ways to wear this pretty shawl.  The pattern was  easy to follow as it repeats until you get the desired length.

Yarn

The yarn I used is Drops Puna a beautiful 100% alpaca, its so soft and warm.  In total I used 8 x 50g balls with about 2/3rds left of the eight ball.  It is yarn group B see Drops website for the description.  Puna  is a light double knit/ worsted weight yarn which is slightly heavier than the Debbie Bliss Rialto recommended for the pattern.  The Rialto is described as a double knit too but isn’t the same type of wool.  I am really please with the outcome it has worked really well.

Hooks

I use a 4mm Addi Swing crochet hook, I have had two operations on my right wrist so using an ergonomically designed hook is very important for me. they are expensive but for me they are worth it. They are very comfortable to use, I don’t get crochet fingers when I use them.  You can buy them from Woolwarehouse ,  Love Crochet or Amazon.

Finishing

I didn’t block the shawl as the weight of the shawls pulls the pattern out nicely.  I just gave it a hand wash with a hand wash liquid, no fabric conditioner and laid it flat to dry.

Future Projects

I can see using this pattern repeat for many shawls and scarfs as its easy to set out in different sizes for a scarf rather than a shawl and easy to work out how to use it with different size yarn and hooks.

What this pattern has also encouraged me to do is design my own wrap, I am researching different stitches and trying out some other patterns as practice before I settle on my own design to try.

I broke the lens on my digital SLR camera taking these pictures, I dropped it because I was focusing too much on arranging the shawl on the manikin. I have now replaced it so there will still be pictures but a lesson learnt that my camera is a very important item in my life.