Crochet Shawl for Grandma

Last September, I visited my grandparents and brought a framed bald eagle to give my PopPop. Next month, I’ll visit them with a crochet shawl for Grandma! When I was at their house, Grandma gave me a bunch of her old patterns and let me raid her craft cabinet. She showed me a pattern for a lacy vest that she had wanted in the past, but told me not to make it for her because she wouldn’t have anywhere to wear it. Hmm. I wanted to make her something, so I looked around for something lacy that could be worn… A shawl, of course! I found the Wren Sideways Shawl from Truly Crochet and loved it.

---

NOTE: To be clear, I did NOT design this pattern. The pictured result is mine, but the info above links to the designer’s original pattern. Check it out!

---

Fun Repeating Rows

This crochet shawl was fun! It was my first WIP after finishing a crochet thread dress, so this easy and quick pattern was a breath of fresh air. It’s rewarding to see any project come together, but it was especially nice to be rewarded more quickly.

The designer calls this “an advanced beginner shawl” and “a beginner plus crochet pattern” in her post on the pattern. What I love about it is that it’s simple enough for beginners, but interesting enough for non-beginners. To give you an idea of the difficulty level, I memorized the row repeat after about three or four repetitions. (The part that took me the longest to remember was how to start and end certain rows.) The pattern uses basic stitches and the 2 dc puff stitch, which adds some weight to the shawl in between the lacy holes.

The yarn I chose added to the pleasure of this project. Using a soft worsted weight was another nice change of pace from the cotton crochet thread of my dress. (Don’t get me wrong, I love using cotton thread.) I made this shawl using a hook from Grandma’s craft cabinet, and it’s my new favorite hook. It’s a Gem brand hook, which I was unfamiliar with and have been trying to research. I will let you know what I find… and please tell me if you know anything about this company.

One interesting feature I hadn’t encountered before is that the designer uses a one-stitch turning chain for double crochets and doesn’t count it as a stitch. I didn’t think this would work, but it did. (Since this project, I’ve seen this suggested as a way to eliminate gapping along the edges of your work.) At the beginning of the project, I made my chain 1s as I normally would, but later I started making them looser.

Yarn Yardage & Falling Short

When I was looking at different crochet shawl patterns, I tried to consider how much yarn they would require. I had two skeins of Caron Simply Soft in “Plum Perfect” and one of those skeins had been used to make a dishcloth, so I didn’t even have two full skeins. But they were soft and the perfect color, so I was just willing them to be enough for a shawl. (Isn’t that how it works??)

I searched for “one-skein crochet shawls” and didn’t love what I saw, but I took notes about the types of shawls that claim to only require one skein. Then I looked for similar patterns, and reasoned that I’d be okay since I had two skeins to work with (almost).

You already know what happened. I worked up both skeins and looked at my work: “That’s not enough to keep anybody warm!” It wasn’t big enough to be a lap blanket, much less a shawl. Part of me thinks I should do a better job of planning ahead, but part of me enjoys the challenge of making things work as I go.

I returned to my stash and lucked out big time. I found gray yarn that complemented the purple beautifully, and I had multiple skeins of it left over from a blanket project. The only thing is that it was a different brand (Impeccable from Loops & Threads). I compared the two yarns and they felt so similar that I was confident it wouldn’t be a problem.

(Did I make a gauge swatch at any point? No.)

Making Design Choices

You know what I love about crochet? Getting to make design choices, even when following a pattern. I had a purple rectangle and needed to decide how to add the gray. Should I make it half purple and half gray? Nah, I didn’t like that idea. I joined the gray to the top end of the shawl and made a separate panel to join at the other end. That way, I ended up with a large purple middle with a shorter gray section on each end. I whip stitched the separate gray panel along the foundation chain of the purple section.

The two yarns are similar enough that you almost can’t tell a difference. The gray is a hair thicker. If you lay the shawl out flat, you can see that the gray sections are slightly wider than the purple section.

A Row-Repeat Wrinkle

There’s one instance where I really wish I had planned ahead. To boil it down, this pattern is only six rows long. You make rows 1-2, and then repeat rows 3-6 over and over until you reach your desired length. Rows 1-2 are the same as rows 5-6, except that they set you up with the foundation chain. (Rows 1-2 and 5-6 are the filet crochet-looking double crochets.) All that to say, this shawl is designed to begin and end with the mesh-like double crochet portion. Because I didn’t plan on joining a piece on after I started, my two joins are different and that bugs me.

In the first join, I moved seamlessly from row 6 of the purple into row 3 of the gray, following the pattern as written. In the second join that I sewed on, I moved from row 6 of the gray into row 1 of the purple, meaning that I have four identical rows instead of two. It also means that one gray section is about an inch longer than the other! I’m sure Grandma won’t mind, but I wish I’d thought about that before joining them.

Obviously, the best way to do this would’ve been to start the whole pattern with gray, then join purple, then join gray to get the same result without breaking the pattern. But, even in my improvised version, I could’ve done a couple things to make the joins match:

1. I could’ve started the first gray section with an extra repeat of rows 5-6, so that both joins would have four rows of double crochet. Breaking the pattern at each color change would look intentional.
2. I could’ve ended the second gray section with rows 3-4 instead of completing the full repeat, although that would’ve been tricky to sew on.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda! Those options didn’t occur to me at the time, so I just sewed it on and will have a story to tell Grandma (and you).

Adding a Border

The pattern doesn’t include a border, but I wanted to add one. (Design choices!) I thought a crab stitch (reverse single crochet) border would look good and wouldn’t require me to design an edging to match the shawl’s stitch pattern. I started out with two rounds of plain single crochet and finished it off with the crab stitch on the third round.

When it comes to borders, I’ve always struggled with spacing stitches evenly along the left and right selvages (vocabulary from my latest read)—along the sides of the work. I tried working 8 sc along each four-row repeat, and it looked a little too crowded. I tried working 7 sc, and it looked a little too tight. So, for each four-row repeat, I alternated between placing 7 and 8 single crochet stitches along the side. I think it turned out well! It’s definitely the most even border I’ve made, by far.

This wasn’t my primary objective, but adding a gray border around the whole piece really tied it together. It makes it look like I didn’t accidentally run out of purple yarn. Ha!

Creative Steam Blocking

I usually block on a bulletin board. I take it from my desk, remove all the papers, and put it all back when I’m done blocking. The board is too small for this crochet shawl, though, so I started looking around my home… and found a couch cushion. Brilliant. I covered it with a clean bedsheet to avoid getting cat hair on the shawl.

It worked beautifully, except I could only block a third of the shawl at a time and I’m pretty sure I didn’t keep it straight throughout each third. I used my boyfriend’s steamer for the first time, instead of trying to hover my iron over it. I have now added his steamer to my craft stash! All in all, I tied up the couch cushion for a couple days, which I thought was funny. Good thing we have a sectional!

Finished Measurements

The finished crochet shawl is 66″ long and 19-20″ wide, depending on whether you’re measuring the purple or gray sections. I attempted to measure the wraps per inch for the purple and gray yarns, just to see how much of a difference there was. For those seeking scientific evidence, I’ve failed you. I measured the purple yarn from a tail after the piece was crocheted, and the tail was only long enough to measure half an inch. The purple yarn was 7 wraps in half an inch, so about 14 WPI? The gray yarn was 13 WPI.

---

Project Take-aways

No project is too “simple” to learn from. These are my main takeaways this time:

• You can use a one-stitch turning chain for a double crochet, if you like, and not count it as a stitch.
• Crocheting by the seat of your pants is fun AND it can lead to annoying irregularities that planning would’ve prevented. My approach to planning varies from project to project, and is definitely something to keep in mind.
• For the border: Instead of trying to match 1-2 stitches per row of double crochet, consider matching more stitches across 3 or 4 rows to give yourself a better picture of how even they’ll end up looking.
• Blocking with a steamer is much less worrisome than using an iron.
• Look for inexpensive blocking mats, to avoid future couch-raiding.

I’ve packed the shawl away until it’s time for my visit. I can’t wait to give it to Grandma, but I have a lot I want to make between now and then, so I know the time will fly. Now, I’m actually publishing this on Grandma’s birthday, so you’ll have to excuse me. Let’s see if I can talk to her without spoiling this surprise.

You can expect to see a couple of new sea turtle faces in the near future, and an advent calendar. Happy crocheting to you!

— Kelsey