You’ll have seen in this sneak preview that I’ve been creating a new Scheepjes Whirl Pattern. For a few months now I’ve been busy designing and testing a new shawl using Scheepjes Whirl. I LOVE a Scheepjes Whirl pattern! It’s such a lovely yarn to work with!
Rough Diamonds – a Scheepjes Whirl Pattern
So here it is! I’ve finally finished my Scheepjes Whirl pattern for a shawl! It’s now published on Ravelry.
You can find it on Ravelry here
You can also download it directly by clicking here
Rough Diamonds Shawl – hits and tips
As I was going through designing this shawl, I thought of a few things that might help. Especially if you’ve not crocheted much before.
Starting chain – Use Stitch Markers every 50th stitch
As this shawl was designed for Scheepjes Whirl, which has a gradient, I’ve done this so that the gradient fades from top to bottom. That means that this shawl is crocheted from the top-down and therefore has a VERY LONG starting chain.
It’s sometimes difficult to keep count of such long chains, so my tip is to use stitch-markers to mark every 50th stitch, that way if you lose count, you don’t have to go too far back.
Also – If you’re anything like me, sometimes I pick up or drop stitches in that first row into a starting chain, having stitch markers in also helps this row as you can check that you have 50 stitches each time you get to a marker!
(You could also try using foundation treble crochet if you want!)
Crocheting into chain-space – if possible, avoid!
A lot of the stitches that you will be making in this shawl will be into a chain-stitch of the row below. Its really tempting (and faster!) to crochet into the chain-space and not the stitch. Whilst you can do this, I find that these stitches will slip around a bit more, meaning that you lose some definition.
If possible, I recommend crocheting into the stitch. Sometimes, the first chain in each space is hard to find, but the second one is much easier.
A half-way house would be to crochet into the chain-space on the first stitch in each pair of two and into the chain itself of the next (second) stitch. This seems to work for me!
Starting Chain is a stitch – last stitch will be in turning chain
The starting chain on each row is counted as a stitch. Each row starts and ends with either 5 stitches (a chain 3 and 4 trebles to start) or 3 stitches (a chain 3 and 2 trebles to start). That means that the last stitch of each row will go into the top of the turning chain from the row below.
Blocking – Do it – its essential!
There are a number of different types of blocking (I’ve written about how I block garments here…). For this I’d recommend wet-blocking. I also like to use a little “Eucalan” when I do this to make it smell lovely!
Some people HATE blocking knit / crochet items, others (like me!) love it. For this shawl I’d say its essential, you’ll probably find that you finish it and its been screwed up in a bag, scrunched up to crochet it, etc whilst you’ve been working on it, blocking it will open-up the pattern and really make it pop!
Each line is simple really – ignore the chain spaces
For each row, the repeat is the same all the way across, you just have to work out what the repeat is…for example this row (chosen at random!) is as follows:
Ch3 (counts as stitch), 4tr, ch2, sk2, 2tr, ch2, sk2, 6tr, then *ch2, sk2, 10tr, ch2, sk2, 6tr, ch2, sk2, 4tr, ch2, sk2, 4tr, ch2, sk2, 6tr repeat from * until there are 11 stitches left, ch2, sk2, 2tr, ch2, sk2, 5tr
If you look at the stitches I’ve highlighted Green and Orange.
- The set up of this row (in green) is 4 trebles, then 2 trebles, then 6 trebles, each with a [chain 2, skip 2] space in between)
- The main repeat across the row is 10 trebles, 6 trebles, 4 trebles, 4 trebles, 6 trebles (each with a [chain 2, skip 2] space in between. I was chanting “10, 6, 4, 4, 6” to myself as I went across the row!
- The end of the row is 2 trebles and then 5 trebles, with a [chain 2, skip 2 space]
This Scheepjes Whirl Pattern, my “Rough Diamonds” shawl has been a labour of love, several-months in the making. I hope you enjoy making this shawl as much as I enjoyed designing it! 🙂
Jo
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