Grinda Shawl

The need for this came about because of the Air Cadets Annual Dining In. Some fabric to make an evening dress was on my shopping list when I had my ‘fabric day’! I had found a pattern, but didn’t quite find the perfect fabric, although I found some that I could try it out with! Anyway, at the Dining In, shoulders need to be covered, and my dress pattern didn’t have sleeves. So the perfect excuse to make this shawl 🙂

It had already been on my radar because my mother-in-law had seen it and liked it at Black Sheep Wools, but I generally wouldn’t wear a shawl, so while I liked it, it wasn’t on my likely to make next list. This excuse put it there!

It is made from a Whirl (@ £20.99) and optional additional Whirlette (@ £6.90) of Sheepjes. I went for the larger shawl with the additional whirlette in liquorice. The Whirl comes in lots of lovely colours, but I picked Night time bubbles, which goes from pink to black. This would go with my ‘try it out’ fabric for the evening dress, and the lovely silk I have my eye on. The Whirl seems quite expensive, but it is a 220g ball, roughly 1000m, so not really that bad.

The free Make-A-Long (MAL) pattern is below. The instructions are really good and easy to follow. Just remember to concentrate!! I took it on the train with me when I had a meeting in London, and was gutted to spot I was a stitch short when I did a count. I don’t count every row, certainly not if the pattern fits in, so hadn’t spotted it. It was about 4 rows back, just one treble, which took a while to spot. I had to stop at that point as I was nearing London and as Whirl pulls from the middle it would be difficult to rewind the wool I unpicked 🙁 I did unpick it on the way home, and made it up again. Can you spot it??

https://www.lillabjorncrochet.com/2018/06/grinda-mal-general-information.html

Couple of things about the Whirl.

• I have never had a ball of wool with so many joins in it. I was quite disappointed actually.
• I don’t really like pulling from the middle.

Nearly there – this was the end of the Whirl, before my Whirlette arrived. You can see the heart shapes a bit better in this picture than the later ones, due to lighting.

Sheepjes recommend which Whirlette to continue with if you want to extend from a Whirl. I can spot the colour change from the end of the Whirl and where the Whirlette starts – it isn’t quite black enough.. Hopefully no-one else will.