Kría

A finished crochet project!

For a few months now I've been doing more crochet in an attempt to improve my crochet skills and get more crochet into the shop.

So far I've started a jumper and a t-shirt and I've experimented with face puffs and washcloths. All are documented in last months Work In Progress update.

One new project started last month was a shawl - Kría by Tinna Thórudóttir Thorvaldsdóttir (available to buy on Ravelry).

It's a top down triangular shawl with a relatively simple two row repeat.

I crocheted it in Crazy Zauberball, shade 2475 - a range of gorgeous dark shades of blue, purple and green.

The pattern appealed to me as I love making accessories,  especially one ball shawls. We have lots of one ball shawls and scarves in the shop.

The one ball (or hank) is usually 100g of 4ply. But despite the thinness of the yarn they make achievable and impressive projects, portable to work on and giftable too.

Given my love of a one ball project it made sense to do a one ball crochet project. I did struggle to find a pattern I could do. Although I know how to make basic crochet stitches I struggle to know where to put my hook and patterns are still confusing.

Knowing where to stick your hook is pretty important. I wanted to do a triangular shaped shawl or scarf so this requires increasing or decreasing. For Kría, as it is worked from the top down, this meant I needed to increase at each end and down the centre spine (a similar construction to our free knitting patterns - Eyelet Shawl and Colour Block Shawl).

Even if I was doing a rectangle scarf I would have to think twice about where to put my hook in order to keep the edges straight and the scarf the same width. 

I found the Kría pattern simple enough to follow although I found the formatting confusing. This is probably because using crochet abbreviations is still new to me and I don't find them used in a standardise way in patterns. To make it easier for myself I wrote out the pattern in bullet points so I didn't miss a stitch.

It is written in US crochet terms but it only uses one stitch - US Double Crochet/UK Treble Crochet - so it's an easy translation.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this shawl. It was finished in a week so it was a quick make and I immediately wanted to start another.

I admit I had to restart several times before I got the stitch count right but after that it was very straightforward. I managed to keep the centre stitch consistent without using a removeable stitch marker but I could have added one for extra reassurance.  

From one Crazy Zauberball this shawl is approximately 120cm in width and 48cm in depth. It is really easy to make it bigger - just keep going with a second ball. And unlike knitting you don't need to worry about leaving enough yarn to cast off.

And it's a versatile pattern. You could make this with any thickness of yarn - just adjust the size of your hook to get a fabric you like. The thicker the yarn the bigger the hook.

unblocked

I used a 4mm hook (Crazy Zauberball is a sock weight 4ply) and felt the fabric was a little firm whilst I was making it. But once I soaked the shawl (I use Eucalan washing liquid) and then stretched the shawl out it really opened up and softened.

If you fancy having a go at making Kría, these links may help...

• Kría crochet pattern available to buy on Ravelry
• Our collection of Crazy Zauberball shades
• Our crochet hooks
• UK and US crochet terminology at The Crochet Project
• Magic Circle tutorial on YouTube
• Treble Crochet photo tutorial

Kría is a new shop sample so you can have a squish and try it on in the Pittenweem shop.

We also have another one ball crochet shawl - Northmoor Lock.

I made Northmoor Lock in 2015 using Vivacious 4ply.

Northmoor Lock is a side to side shawl and is available in the book The Shawl Project. I've just discovered that the pattern is also now available as a single digital pattern on Ravelry and on The Crochet Project website.

I remember this being an enjoyable and quick project too. But, for me, it was a bit trickier that Kría. As you increase up to the mid point and then decrease on the other size, you have to ensure this is done evenly. Also you need to know where to stick your hook it make the little points even too. All this means is that I ripped t back quite a lot until I got the hang of it.