This is a project that'e been on the go for ages. I started it off around February 2014, but after a while it got very tedious, so I set it aside for a while. Admittedly, I thought it would probably end up filed under "stuff I never finished" but a few weeks ago I was doing a clean out of my vast yarn collection and came across the shawl, so I thought I'd take it out and give it another go.
My brother in law is getting married in September, so my goal is to have it finished in time to wear to the wedding. Whether or not I'll manage that remains to be seen, but I'm certainly making progress on it a lot quicker than I did when I was working on it before.
This is the first time I've ever done Filet Crochet; to be honest, I'd never even heard of it until one day I saw a YouTube tutorial by The Crochet Crowd and I decided to try it out. I consulted Google to find a nice pattern, and considering it was my first attempt at Filet, I probably should have picked a very basic doily but when I saw this pattern I just loved it!
It's called Ginevra Shawl by Adriafil Yarns. I'd used the Memphis yarn by Adriafil to make a bedspread for my son just after he had been born, and I liked the quality a lot. Unfortunately, the store where I had purchased that yarn had gone out of business, and I couldn't find any other local stockists of Adriafil yarns. I could have ordered in from abroad, but I was keen to get started on the shawl (patience is not one of my strengths) so I went out to Springwools to see what they had in stock. I ended up choosing Rico Essentials Crochet in shade 07.
I love the purple!!
I picked this thread because firstly, I liked the colour, and secondly it's a very common yarn, and would be stocked by most of the wool shops in Ireland, so if I needed extra, I could buy it locally or buy it online without having to pay through the nose for shipping. This thread is slightly thicker than what the pattern suggests, so this meant that I would also need to increase the hook size - I'm using a Prym 2.0mm hook instead of a 0.75mm hook.
Having gathered all my supplies, I was ready to get hooking.... right? Wrong! The problem was the pattern - I had printed it out, and while the "spider motif" chart for the edges was clear and easy to follow, the filet chart was absolutely miniscule. There was no way I'd have been able to read it without a magnifying glass!! If I was looking at on my laptop or iPad it was fine, because I could view it as a PDF and just zoom in on the various parts I was working on. However, I didn't really fancy having to lug a laptop/iPad all over the place with me, so my only other option was to re-draw the pattern on to a bigger piece of paper.
That's right...6 A4 PAGES!!!!
This was a real labour of love, let me tell you! As I was sitting there, painstakingly drawing tiny dots onto graph paper all I could think was "This damn shawl had better be worth it!" in between a string of swear words. Eventually I was ready to start. The spider motif looks complicated on the pattern, but actually it's really simple, and once I got to the part where the filet grid began, I didn't need to look at the motif pattern anymore.
Unfortunately there's quite a few rows of filet on its own before you get to the beginning of the flowers, which was a bit boring. When I got to the flowers it started getting more interesting, and it's also where you really need to start concentrating on whether you're working from left to right or right to left, depending on which row you're on. I found it helpful to put a line through each row as I finished it, because it was very easy to mix up the rows and there was a couple of times when I'd get halfway along a row and realise that I'd been working in the wrong direction.
Slowly moving towards the finish line!
Funnily enough, since I've taken a break from it, I'm finding it a lot easier to work on now. I'm not sure if it's because it's actually starting to look like a shawl now, so it's more encouraging getting an idea of what the end result will be, or if it's just because I left it to once side, but I'm actually enjoying working on it at the moment, whereas before it just felt like a chore. Hopefully I'll be back before too long, posting an update with the finished piece!
Pattern: Adriafil Ginevra Shawl
Yarn: Rico Essentials Crochet
