Scrappy Shawls for Alice's Embrace

The awesome ladies of the Crochet Shawl-Along have inspired me to stash bust out a few scrappy shawls from my bits and bobs of Lion Brand Homespun.  The pattern is the Yarrow Triangle Scarf.  These two will go to a charity called [url=http://alicesembrace.org/]Alice's Embrace[/url], that provides shawls and lap blankets for Alzheimer's patients.  Bonus: Now I have an entire yarn drawer free!

Scissor Fobs & Stitch Markers for Shawl-Along Friends

I've mentioned the Shawl-Along on Craftster a few times now.  It is absolutely one of my favorite threads there, and I love how supportive everyone is of one another.  A few weeks ago sheepBlue mentioned she had run out of a yarn halfway through a shawl, and was having trouble finding anymore of it in her area.  I checked online and found that my Joann's had it in stock, and it happened to be on sale, so I offered to pick it up for her.  Since I was going to be mailing it, I decided to add a few goodies to brighten her day. 

I started with a scissor fob, so no one can try to run off with her snips.  It was obviously inspired by her Craftster username, sheepBlue, with various shades of blue glass beads, and an adorable sheep charm.  

Next I put together a set of stitch markers, featuring some of her favorite things, including a gun and skull for her love of the My Favorite Murder Podcast, another blue sheep, an old tv for her favorite shows, buttons, dinosaur, skeleton key, book & reading glasses for her book club, embroidery thread for her awesome embroidered Teesha Moore style patchwork bags, a little artist, and an eye.

About a week later, I received my new subscription box from Darn Good Yarn.  It was a beautiful fingering weight silk in the color Morning Glory, along with a shawlette pattern.  I was game to try it, but found that I was going to run out of yarn, so Curiousfae, another member of the Shawl-Along offered to swap yarns with me.  She'd send the Morning Glory, and I'd send her a skein from a few months previous that I hadn't used yet.  

Since I had just sent a box of crochet goodies to sheepBlue, I obviously had to send one to Curiousfae too!  So she also got a scissor fob, this time of a little fairy leaning forward to peer at something.

And a set of stitch markers too, including a deck of tarot cards, a camera for her love of photography, a gnome, a caravan for her love of glamping, the Frog Prince, a K for her initial, a fae, paw print for her pup, rose, miniature fairy or gnome house, and a heart.  

Silk Cloud Waves Shawl

This project has been in the works for a long time, and I'm thrilled to report it's finally done. 

Backstory: I bought the kit in March of 2016.  I had gotten pregnant in February and was over the moon excited.  When it came time for our first doctor's appointment, we were told it was an ectopic pregnancy, and that I would have to have emergency surgery that day to end it and save my life, and while they were at it they had to take out my right fallopian tube which was scarred, and would result in another ectopic if we tried again.  I was so shocked and devastated.  I wasn't allowed to DO anything afterwards, just rest on the couch.  I finally convinced Jim to let me crochet because I needed to do something or go out of my mind.  I browsed the web, and saw this shawl pattern from DGY, and bought it to give myself something to do.  But they didn't ship the kit for nearly 2 weeks, so by then I was back on my feet.  

At that point I threw myself into getting back to the gym and taking care of myself, and being the healthiest I could be, so that hopefully we could start trying again in a few months.  I couldn't look at the yarn, because it reminded me of the sadness.  But by December, I decided that maybe I should take it up, and use it as a way to work through my feelings and heal, and give a gift to myself in honor of the little life that never came to be.  

Since then I've worked on it in starts and stops.  Sometimes it makes me sad, other times it doesn't get to me at all, and sometimes I just forget about it.  But I've really pushed myself to finish it over the last few weeks.  When I finished the prescribed 100 rows, I had a bit of yarn left, so I repeated the pattern until I ran out, giving me 110 rows.  I like to say I literally gave this project 110%!  It's 75" long, by 24" wide. 

I am thrilled with how it came out, but don't think I'll be taking up a project with such a thin yarn and tiny hook again anytime soon.  It was tough on my hands.  The pattern is called Cloud Waves, and I bought it as part of a kit from Darn Good Yarn.  The yarn is their lace weight silk, in shade Enchanted Forest.    This was my first project that has needed blocking, and it certainly helped me get over my fear of blocking such a delicate piece.

Tealberry Moon Shawl & the Story of the Shawl-Along

After making my first virus shawl, I was asked by a few other hookers over on Craftster, to start a virus shawl-along.  So I did, and I enjoyed seeing other folks try the pattern for the first time, but I kind of thought that the craftalong would peter out after people had tried it once or twice.  The group of folks involved are some of my favorite people on Craftster, and I should have known better than to doubt them!  A few weeks back, after we had each mentioned other shawl patterns we wanted to try, and shared links of our other work with each other, someone suggested changing our focus to be on shawls in general, instead of based on a specific pattern. 

Everyone seemed keen on the idea, so I did that too.  Soon we had a long list of new patterns suggested by the members, and the thread became one of the most active that I follow outside the HP Craftalong.  Then I was inspired by kittykill's hoopla-along, to add a challenge element.  Instead of the monthly challenges she holds on the Needlework board, we decided to try 4 month long challenges, to give folks plenty of time on intricate patterns.  Our first challenge theme was picked at random from the list of suggestions, and was craft from stash.  Most folks are excited about it, though I admit, I'm having trouble with it because I generally don't keep that much stash yarn around, that isn't for a specific project. 

And in the midst of all this, plus resetting my studio and working on stash busting from all my supplies, I had to go to Michael's to pick up some frames.  I was almost safely out of the store, when I passed a bin of clearance yarn, including 5 skeins of Unforgettable in Tealberry, and 5 more in Polo.  Since I've been lusting after both colorways for ages, I snapped them up.  So now, instead of stash busting out a shawl to fulfill my own challenge, I've increased my stash by 10 skeins of yarn!

Rather than allowing it to end up in a drawer or bin, languishing, I decided to whip up a shawl for my mom, who always seems to be cold lately.  The pattern is the Lunar Crossings Shawl by Crochet Kim.  I love how quickly and easily it worked up.  I used 2.6 skeins of  Red Heart Unforgettable, in Tealberry, and it's a generous size.  I did 6 full repeats of the motif, then on the 7th I did rows 7-11 as written in the pattern, then added a row of single crochet, placing 4 sc in the point.  After that I added a row of modified picot stitches, starting with a picot in the first space, then doing 3 sc, repeating to the point where I started the picot in the 3rd sc and completed it in the 3rd sc so it would be centered, then continuing as before.  To do the modified picot, ch 4, then place your hook in the left side of the 'V' of the first ch, AND through the top of the next stitch (3 loops on hook), yarn over, and pull through all 3 loops.