A week ago, Scheepjes released the latest issue of YARN The After Party and this issue features a shawl designed by Christina of A Spoonful of Yarn. She has used Scheepjes Stone Washed to create a very beautiful and nice-to-work-on design called Forest Valley Shawl. How can I tell? Well, almost a year ago Christina asked me to test her pattern!
Here’s what the original version looks like… Don’t you just love the texture on the left photo?
About the Designer
Christina has been designing crochet patterns for a while now and she definitely made some stunning ones. She became a member of the Scheepjes Bloggers tribe recently. Probably her most famous pattern is the Hotel of Bees Shawl for which I was one of her testers too. I wrote about making that one in this blog post.
If you like the Hotel of Bees shawl, then you will probably like this Forest Valley Shawl too! The basic construction of both shawls is similar. You start at the widest point and you work your way up decreasing on one side. In this pattern, Christina mixed puff stitches and filet crochet to add interest.
Yarn and Colours
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the yarn that is used for this shawl is Scheepjes Stone Washed. Scheepjes very kindly provided me with the necessary amount of balls needed for testing this pattern. And I got to choose my own colours!
I knew which colours had been used in the original version and I wanted to create a bit of a contrasting version. So I settled for the Autumn colours in the photo above. All details about colour and quantities are listed on the Ravelry project page.
The first task was to make a test swatch so that I could decide on the right hook size to use for my Forest Valley Shawl.
The Making
Being familiar with the construction of the shawl helped a great deal since there was a certain amount of pressure on making this one. There was a deadline… I finished it in exactly 10 days. The first rows are the ‘nasty’ ones (if you can at all call them that way) because they’re the longest ones. But soon a reached the first colour change and the second one came soon after. After finishing the third colour, I could start with the main colour.
I’m really happy with the yellow combined with the neutral tone in the main part of the shawl.
I have made the shawl in July of the last year and the weather was nice. That means I could do a lot of alfresco garden crochet and the stitches really just flew off the hook!
And yes… All of the ends had to be woven in too…
Tadaah!
After a gentle blocking, this pretty one got its photo shoot! Are you ready for the reveal of my finished version? Well, here is my Forest Valley Shawl!
I absolutely love the texture of this shawl! The combination of puff stitches and the Stone Washed yarn is just really great.
So now I can finally wear it!
You can find full details on this project on Ravelry as well!
No Comments