Thursday 14 January 2016

Crochet Shawls : Fortune's Shawlette, Virus Shawl and a colourful South Bay Shawlette

Hello my dear Blog Friends,

How have you been? Thanks so much for your lovely comments on my knitting post!

For those of you who have been wondering if I had given up on crochet - this post is especially for you! This time I will show you some interesting crochet shawls and links to the patterns!

Interesting Crochet Shawl patterns


1) The Virus Shawl

I can't tell you how much this pattern demanded to be made! Almost every time I go on pinterest, I seem to come across this pattern. So I put this on my ideas list until I had finished some other projects first. I had already bought the yarn in Germany.

The pattern is on ravelry, of course and it is free!

Virus shawl.                         Here is the direct download link (PDF)

Virus pattern in German.     And here is a photo tutorial and chart on Facebook
The yarn I am using is lace yarn by Zitron, called Filigran Lace. It is super thin and fine pure merino wool and the colours are amazing!





The colours are really as vibrant as the first and last photo. (Some days the day light is not great for taking photos!)



2) Fortune's Shawlette

I first mentioned about this shawl in a recent blog post here.

Here is the Fortune's Shawlette! It's from another fantastic crochet designer, Tamara Kelly, better known as Moogly. You can also find all her many (and often free) patterns on ravelry.

So far I have used 2x 100g skeins of the lovely soft Merino wool, and I'm about to start my last skein!





3) The South Bay Shawlette

Some of you might remember that I have used this pattern quite a few times, because I love how you can use it for different kinds of yarn, different thicknesses etc. I love variegated colourful yarn best!

A lot of you really liked this version here from a previous post.

The South Bay Shawlette is from Lion Brand, you will find the free pattern here.

Sometimes incredible things happen, such as finding the new sock yarn by Arne and Carlos (shade 03653 - shown in large) and then coming across another yarn in matching colours - Kidsilk Haze Stripe by Rowan (Shade 202). Kid silk Haze is an amazing soft fuzzy and light Kid mohair yarn with 30% Silk added. It feels very luxurious!

I couldn't think of a better pattern to use these 2 yarns together! The colour effects are simply stunning! (these photos don't do them enough justice!)






And here are all three shawls together!


Funkycrochet - Three great crochet shawl patterns!
 
I hope you enjoyed this little round-up of interesting patterns and might come back here for the links!

I find it really interesting to look at a pattern on ravelry and then check out the different versions that people have made from the same pattern! It really is very inspirational!

If you haven't tried pinterest before, I urge you to give it a go! It opens up a whole new world of ideas and patterns, lots of them for free. For example, if you click on one image, it shows a whole lot of similar and complimentary patterns below.

You can find (and follow) me here on pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/myfunkycrochet/

Last, but not least: Thank you for following my blog! A very warm welcome to my latest new followers, hope you enjoy what you see!

I welcome your comments and love reading them, so please don't be shy and say hello... ;)
 
Have a lovely weekend!!!

Sunday 3 January 2016

The Knitting Catch Up - Barcelona Alpaca Jumpers, Soft Merino Cowl, and the rebirth of the Ombre Shawl

Hello Dear Blog Friends,

A quick preview of my first finished project (finished on 1st January 2016): More in a moment!




The knitting catch up

I mentioned in one of my recent posts that I have done some new knitting, finally here is my chance to tell you in more detail about it.



Two Alpaca Jumpers called Barcelona

First of all, this time I am following a pattern for a jumper from this lovely book: Jules & Julie by Julia Jaeken featuring 35 patterns for the entire family! It is photographed beautifully and features members of Julie's family!

She is the owner of Julija's Shop here in Antwerpen.
I love her shop, she stocks some of my favourite yarns!
This is already her second book, her first one is full of delightful knits for small children!


Jules & Julie


Unfortunately it is only available in Dutch so far. I guess if you wanted to, you could mail Julie whether you could purchase the pattern in English, might be worth a try...

You find Julie's website, blog and shop here!


So I am currently knitting an Alpaca jumper for one of my daughters. The thing is, before I could get the light grey) wool for hers, I bought a different shade (dark grey) and got started - this will be a jumper for myself. So in fact I am actually knitting 2 jumpers at the same time, in different sizes, but from the same pattern. (Barcelona).

Here you can see what Barcelona looks like (both adult and child sizes)




Here you can see work in progress on the two jumpers that I am making:
Not only am I making 2 jumpers, I am also working on front and back together!!! I am using the same wool as Julie in her book - Drops Alpaca Boucle which I bought in her shop. I already worked with this super soft yarn last year!
 





I am making progress, slowly.... (well because I have also been doing crochet of course!)


My first finished project - a knitted cowl

Then in mid December I started on a large Merino loop shawl which is a present for a good friend!

I finished it on the first day of January, what a good start into the New Year!

Measurements: 188 cm all round, knitted in the round, 21 cm wide. This is large enough to wrap around the neck 3x. I love this yarn, it is unbelievably soft and squishy, yet warm! I knitted quite loosely, so it is very elastic and stretchy! The colour is 174 (Olive Green). I used moss stitch.
I've already made quite a few of these super long loops!








 

My Alpaca Ombre Shawl

I also decided to frog the ombre shawl I had been knitting and to re-work it because I wasn't happy with how it turned out. Luckily I am knitting on large needles (9mm). This is from the oh-so-soft Alpaca Silk yarn from Drops.


Well, that's it for now on the knitting front, we'll talk about crochet soon!!! ;))

Again, I am looking forward to hearing from you, please leave me a comment or two! See, that even rhymes! Looks like we're off on a good start for 2016!