Victoria Shawl TaDah!

During the last year or so I’ve been so much focused on crochet bags, I’ve made very little else. A handful of blankets, some bunting and a cushion cover and a few small things like coasters filled my hooky time when I wasn’t doing a bag but shawls were not really in my radar.

That all changed when my friend Helen, who is co-admin of the Bagalong with Crafternoon Treats on Facebook sent me one as a pressie.

Its the virus shawl, which is a free pattern available as a pattern download and as a video tutorial and chart. Helen chose a lovely rich dark green/turquoise yarn and I loved it as soon as I opened the package. This was a treat for helping Helen with a fundraising project that she did before Christmas. I did very little really and so it was a nice surprise that she had made something for me in return.

January is the perfect time for shawls and I was soon wearing it outside and inside and loved the cosy feeling of having a shawl around my neck.

Quite a few people at the crochet and chat group that I go to in Selby were also keen on shawls and in early March we talked about the new pattern by Sandra at Cherry Heart – the Victoria Shawl. When I got home I looked online to see bigger pictures of Victoria and was smitten. I downloaded the pattern and started looking through my stash for yarns that I could use.

I actually started making two versions of the Victoria shawl – one in the Louise Harding Amitola in Tango and one in Deramores Studio DK. These are below at a very early stage, on either side of the gorgeous Victoria Shawl made by the designer, Sandra Paul from the blog Cherry Heart.

I’ve still quite a way to go with the Amitola shawl but my heather, mist and amethyst shawl progressed very rapidly. While I was making it I started to do my crochet podcasts – a big new venture for me. In Episode 1 I wore Helen’s shawl and showed progress on Victoria.

By Episode 4 of the podcast, my Deramores version was complete and I was wearing the finished Victoria shawl.

I’ve really enjoyed talking about my progress during the podcasts, which I’ve done each week so far. Never did I expect to enjoy filming so much and its a complete surprise that I’m not squirming with embarrassment. Which just goes to show that you should definitely try new things – you never know unless you do whether they will work or not.

Anyway, back to Victoria shawl…. as I said, I chose Deramores Studio DK in heather for the main part of the shawl and used two 100g balls almost completely. I added one pattern repeat in mist, which is a lovely silver grey, then completed the shawl using the deep vintage purple shade amethyst. I could have chosen the richer purple shade aubergine or the darker grey, but I think amethyst is just perfect.

This is a lovely yarn and the great thing about trying the shawl pattern out in an acrylic is that you still get to practice the pattern, you end up with a beautiful shawl and the cost in terms of pennies is relatively small. For four balls, the cost is only £8.00, plus I paid £2.00 for the pattern. A tenner for a shawl is not bad is it?

The pattern is now for sale at the full price of £3.50 (I got it early so on introductory offer), but so worth it even at full price as you will want to make more shawls in the same design.

VIctoria Shawl Tadah!!!

Finally, the other day, I took some Tadah! pictures the other day to show her off in all her glory…

 

Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll subscribe to the YouTube channel to catch up on the latest podcasts. Just so you know, the links to Deramores take you through to their online store where you can buy yarn – and if you do, I get a small commission to help support my blog. The cost is the same to you but every little helps as I’ve had to opt to upgrade my broadband package to cope with video files (which are big, big, big).

Lots of love til next time xxxx Kathryn