Tuesday 22 September 2015

Crochet: Amazing Technicolour Dream Shawl

This is the blog post that didn't want to be written. Don't ask me why - I love the shawl that I have to show you today, and I enjoyed making it, so it's not down to any lack of enthusiasm. It's been finished for over a month, and I've had the photos ready to go for more than a fortnight, but for some reason whenever I sat down to talk to you about it I wasn't sure what to say. Writer's block is a bit of a melodramatic term to use for this little blog of mine, but that's what it felt like. Has anyone else had that problem?

Anyway, I decided that I needed to just get on and write something, so here's my amazing technicolour dream shawl...


The pattern is the Flower Mosaic shawl which appeared in issue 64 of Inside Crochet. I saw it on the cover when I was browsing the craft/sewing magazines, and instantly loved the riot of colour. I didn't have a crochet project on the go at the time, so I ordered the yarn and got started.


The shawl started off life back in April as this pile of balls of Scheepjeswol Cotton 8. The original pattern uses more colours, but there were some in there that I wasn't so keen on so I decided to limit it to 12. That's the minimum number that the pattern recommends, and I'd agree with that - you wouldn't want to have less than this if you want to not have 2 flowers of the same colour too close together. For reference, the colours I used were turquoise, light blue/green, fuchsia, purple, pink, white, grey/blue, cobalt, petrol, canary, orange and red.


The shawl is made up of 1,035 little flowers, which are joined together as you go. Joining as you go is definitely the best way for me to make projects made up of lots of individual motifs - I have a pile of various crochet squares that were destined to become a blanket which are testament to the fact that I get bored of projects that are going to involve lots of seaming at the end!


1,035 seemed like quite a daunting number at the start of the project, but it was surprising how quickly the shawl grew. I mainly worked on it in my lunch breaks, so lots of fairly small chunks of time, which were perfect for this because it was easy to pick up and put down and each flower was finished pretty quickly.


I had a self-imposed rule that I had to weave in the ends from each day's flowers before I could start doing more flowers the next day, because if I'd finished crocheting and then had to weave in 2,070 ends then the shawl would have been left neglected in a corner with the offending ends staring at me in an accusatory manner whilst refusing to weave themselves in.


I had to go up from a 3mm hook to a 4mm one to get the gauge used in the pattern, but I think my gauge might have decreased as the project went on because my finished shawl is still smaller than the dimensions stated. That's no surprise though - I obviously take all my stress out on crochet and make it super tight. When I did my crochet course, everything I made turned out smaller than it did for everyone else in the class! Hey well, better to transfer the stress to the crochet than having it fester inside of me!


I just have one problem with this project - I need to work out how to wear shawls more elegantly! Whenever I put it on, it just looks a bit of a mess. I need get better at that though, because I seem to be drawn to shawl patterns much more than scarves for both knitting and crochet. Has anyone got any tips for me?

11 comments:

  1. Wowsers!! This is amazing! Good call on the weaving in ends as you go, because weaving in 2070 ends in one go sounds like a punishment for some heinous crime! The flowers and colours are lovely, and yey to lunchtime crocheting. I made most of my crochet blanket at lunchtimes.

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    1. Thank you! I really love it, but yes, I'm very glad I weaved in the ends as I went! It's amazing how much you can get done in small bits of time during lunch breaks isn't it?

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  2. Your shawl is so cheery! I've found that I prefer to make small shawls/scarves that are triangular so that they can be tied around my neck bandana-style, and larger shawls that are semi-circular so that I can wear them draped around my shoulders. I don't wear use shawl pins, but lots of people swear by them to keep a shawl on. The one thing that throws me off are triangular shawls where the point is too deep and narrow; I have one like that and I'm still not really sure how to make it work! There are a couple of old but oft-referenced threads on the Ravelry forums about how to wear shawls - maybe take a peek and see if they have any clever ideas?

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    1. Thank you! And thank you for the tips about shawls in general - I'm coming to the conclusion that I think you're right about smaller triangular shawls and larger semi-circular ones. I'll check out the Ravelry forums too - I should have thought to look there!

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  3. What a fantastic shawl, it's so colourful it'll go with everything! I love the shadow it casts in that first photo. Weaving in the ends as you go is definitely a wise idea. The thought of weaving in 2,000 ends would make most folk cry!

    I tend to wear scarves more than shawls so can't really pass on much styling wisdom, but I imagine it would look great pinned with a fun brooch.

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    1. Thank you Jo! I love the shadow in that photo too, so I'm glad someone else appreciated it! And yes, I'm hoping it will go with lots of different things!

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  4. Amazing! Love the crazy colours

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  5. Oh I love this, it is so bright and cheery. I have a few shawls which are RTW and I tend to wear them more in the summer. draped over a summery dress. In the winter I tend to only wear them indoors. Keeping them on the sofa to wrap round when I watch telly! Wear it loads it is gorgeous.

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    1. Thank you Louise! I have another shawl that is mainly worn for snuggling up in on the sofa, but I think this one is too pretty to be kept indoors for the winter so I'll have to persevere with trying to be more elegant!

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  6. I totally agree that there are off days as a blogger where our productivity seems to end once the product is finished. Having said that, I am glad you were able to write and share with us your amazing shawl! I love the colors and I can imagine the effort it took you to finish this.

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