More Shawls

 Some time ago, I purchased this book for my Kindle. 

 However long ago that was, I've had it on my Kindle and basically ignored it since then. When I decided to start making shawls, I perused this book and discovered that it is actually a book of shawl patterns that you can find free online. And it provides a link to the patterns. Hmm, so why did I need the book? 

One of the ones I started from this book is the Summer Morning Shawl.

My goal is to create a small stash of prayer shawls so that I'll have them ready when I need them. This is the first one to go in the stash. It's made with a labelless knitting worsted and I used a 5.0 mm hook. It took 251g or 8.85oz of yarn, and measures approximately 58" across and 26" long.

It's an attractive stitch with a 4-row repeat. 

The pattern comes with a crochet diagram that you can use to follow once you get past the initial 13 rows. 

Lost in Time has already found a home and so has the Goddess Shawl. 

This one is much lacier than Lost in Time, so will provide more beauty than warmth. I used Red Heart Comfort Sparkle, a 6.0 mm hook and it took 322 g or 11.35 oz of yarn. I forgot to measure the final size, but my size 11 feet are in the picture for reference. 😆 Here's a close up so you can see the sparkle.

The pattern states that it was based on a doily pattern. I think I might have some doily patterns somewhere that might come in handy, especially since I seldom use the same pattern twice. I just don't understand the crafters who decide to make 2 (or more) of the same pattern. There are so many beautiful patterns out there and life is too short to keep making the same one, in my not-so-humble opinion. 

There is a bit of a story before I finally got to the Goddess Shawl, made from the sparkley purple yarn. The person I made this for loves bright colours, but, like me, purple is her favourite. I know that I have a skein of this purple yarn somewhere, but could I find it when I wanted it? Certainly, my search for this yarn highlighted for me just how much yarn I have and that I really need to be using it up before I buy any more. But back to my story: I next opted to try bright yarn and pulled out some Red Heart Super Saver in blacklight. I don't remember exactly what order or even how many different patterns I tried. I know I tried the Sapphire Satin Sparkle Shawl and didn't like the way it looked at all. I was going to try the Sweet November Scarf/Shawl. Tell me if these instructions make sense to you:
ch 4, 1 dc in 1st ch, ch 3, turn (This forms beginning loop)
1 dc in loop, ch 1, 1 dc, ch 3, turn

When I looked at those instructions and looked at the shawl and thought that it looked rather boring, I decided against that one as well. I started the Lattice Lace Wrap and realized that was going to be too boring - just chains and single crochet. I looked at a couple of other patterns and they didn't appeal to me either. I also tried the Broomstick Lace Shawl. More instructions that don't make sense: After being told to turn at the end of row 2, here's row 3,
Ch 2, turn, sc in second ch from hook; working in front loops only, sc in each sc across, turn—5 sc.
Why do I chain 2 and then turn again??? And then it doesn't tell me to turn again, so where am I to continue the rest of the stitches for this row? Yeah, that pattern wasn't working out either. After that, I decided to try my own broomstick lace from what I remembered how to do it. I wasn't particularly enjoying that and thought I might continue by making a sampler stitch shawl, so I pulled this book 

 out of my library. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that that probably wouldn't look great either. So, I decided to try a stitch I liked from this book and do the whole shawl in it. I picked #46 Bravado. It is a really pretty stitch, but the instructions weren't correct and I ended up with a puckered mess. I went online to look for an errata for this book. Nothing. Fortunately, I'm an experienced enough crocheter, and the picture of the stitches is clear enough that I was able to figure it out. For future reference, in case you ever decide to try this stitch, here are my corrections:

Row 1: Sc in 8th ch from hook (first 7 chs count as first hdc, ch-3 and sk next ch), *[ch 3, sk next 2 ch, sc in next ch] twice** ch 4, sk 3 ch, sc in next ch, rep from * across, ending last rep at **, ch 2, hdc in last ch, turn.

Rows 2 and 3 - same as in the book.

Row 4: in the second line, where it says, "sc in next ch-3 sp", this should read "sc in next ch-5 sp".

Rows 5 and 6 - same as in the book.

Row 7: on the last line, after it says "ch 2," the next stitch should be "hdc" not "dc". 

Pretty as this pattern was, I just was not liking it. And I realized it was the yarn. While the variegated yarn that I used for the Summer Morning Shawl worked fine, the blacklight was too loud with too much contrast. It might work in the afghan that I actually purchased it for, but I did not like it as a shawl. So I set this shawl idea aside until I happened to be in Walmart and they had the Red Heart Comfort in the purple sparkle (I still haven't figured out where my skein is at home), and I purchased one skein and made the Goddess Shawl. I'm very happy with it and I also now know a few patterns that I won't bother trying again. Nor will I, unless someone specifically asks me for a very loud shawl, try another one in blacklight.