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. 

Prayer Shawls

 

When I first heard about prayer shawls, I assumed they were to wrap up in while praying. Having wrapped myself up in a blanket on chilly mornings during my prayer time, that made sense to me. Although, my blanket covered more of me than a shawl would. However, while it is certainly appropriate to pray while wearing a prayer shawl, that is not the intent. No, prayer shawls were meant for people who are facing a challenge, a hardship - whatever that may be - and the maker is to pray for the recipient while they are making the shawl. It's intended to be a reminder that someone is praying for you, and God loves you. 
Several years ago, one of my co-workers told me about a group making prayer shawls at her church. While I never did get the opportunity to join the group, I have kept the idea on "the back burner." I even bought a prayer shawl book. 

So, recently, I decided it was time to make a prayer shawl. I rummaged in my yarn stash to find a large skein of rose-coloured worsted weight (4) yarn. I weighed it on my kitchen scale and found it weighed 14 oz. This would give me an idea of what patterns I could use. Next, I had to find a pattern. I pulled out my prayer shawl book and was disappointed. Out of 11 patterns, one was for a shrug (prayer shrug?) and 5 were for infant (0-24 months) ponchos. I don't know about you, but I think that a poncho is a rather ridiculous garment for a tiny infant. And, while they may work for toddlers, this age is still too young to understand the concept behind a prayer shawl, or prayer poncho, as the case may be. I assume they're meant to be a reminder to the parents of the maker's prayers, and the love of God behind the gift. But I think that an afghan or quilt would be a more practical gift for an infant or toddler and still accomplish the same purpose. Maybe that's just me, but don't expect me to start producing prayer ponchos in the near future. But back to the book: that left only 5 actual shawl patterns, only 2 of which called for worsted weight yarn. The remaining three used 5-weight yarn. And none of them were what I really wanted. 

I decided that I wanted a triangular shawl, and searched the internet. Unfortunately, a lot of them seemed to be the same stitch, row after row. Boring. As I was going to be making it in a solid colour, I wanted something with some stitch/textural interest. 

And then I found Lost in Time. Wow, yes! 

Definitely stitch and textural interest!

The unfortunate thing is that the designer did the original in a lighter weight yarn than what I had to use. But, as she points out, you can use whatever yarn you want, just adjusting the hook size.

As I crocheted, I was not only praying for the recipient, but I was also praying that I would have enough yarn to make it the size I wanted. Since the pattern wasn't made for knitting worsted, I had no idea how much yarn I would need. Another thing about this pattern is that it is a 12-row repeat. You crochet rows 1 through 26, and then repeat rows 15 through 26 to get to the size you want. That's a pretty big repeat - what if I get to row 20, for example, and the shawl is as big as I want it? I could either frog back to the previous row 26, and end up with a shawl that's smaller than I want, or continue on to the next row 26 and end up with one bigger than I want. My final complaint, if indeed it is a complaint, is that printing out the pattern is a horrible waste of paper. There is a lot of unnecessary white space resulting in 15 pages of printout! I think that if the pages had been set up differently, the number of pages could have been reduced by a third or more. Nevertheless, I am still thrilled with this beautiful pattern.

I was weighing my yarn and project during the time I was making it, and determined that I might not have quite enough of the rose yarn to complete. So, I decided to add some cream-coloured yarn, if needed. How much and where I would add it was yet to be determined. I figured that I would do the border in cream, but wanted to finish the main body of the shawl with the last row in rose. When I got to the last 3 rows, I weighed my yarn before and after row 24. As the last three rows are very similar, I wanted to know how much yarn to complete one of these rows. At the end of round 24, I knew that I did not have enough of the rose to complete both rows 25 and 26, and switched to the cream for round 25. I switched back to the rose for row 26, but after completing one side, I weighed the yarn again and knew that I could not complete the row in that yarn. Frogging back, I carried the cream through the rose stitches to complete the popcorns in this row in cream, with the main part of the row in rose (that wasn't easy, by the way). Once I completed row 26, the shawl measured 62" across the long side and I decided not to add the border, as it was plenty wide enough. 

I'm going to share my data for anyone that might like to do this pattern in knitting worsted:

• Hook used - 5.00 mm/G
• Type of yarn - knitting worsted/4 (sorry, no brand as label was removed)
• Amount of yarn - 431 g/15.2 oz. (remember this amount includes the cream that was carried through row 26, but no border)
• Finished size - 62" across and 30" deep

I seldom use the same pattern twice, but don't be surprised if I use this one again as it is just so pretty. Especially since I now know how much yarn I can expect to use. Meanwhile, in my searching for patterns, I realized that I have a book of shawl patterns on my Kindle. Most (if not all) of them can also be found online. From this book, my next project is the Summer Morning Shawl. 

It reminds me of the virus shawl, which I completed in 2016. (You can see a picture of my virus shawl in the post here). I wasn't planning on starting another shawl, but I tried this yarn to see if it could work as the accent colour in the Lost in Time shawl instead of the cream and ended up with a pile of yarn vomit. I didn't want to put it back in the stash like that, so decided to just start a new project with it. Only 10 oz of this yarn, but the pattern is pretty lacy, so hopefully will have enough to make it as big as I want it. Again, this pattern is not done in knitting worsted, so I will just have to try it and see. 

Now, I need to get back to work on some of my quilting WIPs. 

I finally started Forever in My Heart, a quilt that I designed and is long overdue.