Did you know that March is Ravelry’s National Crochet Month? While Ravelry is not a nation (and I think the nation in question is not mine), it does coincides with me finishing a big crochet project.
If you are a relatively experienced crocheter, you will know that crochet works up a lot faster than knitting. I spent less than two weeks making this shrug and I reckon I could even have had it finished within a week if I had worked on it exclusively.
The pattern is Fifi from the new Rowan Holiday Crochet book. (You can actually win a signed copy of the book on Ravelry right now. Go here for details) and I used just over four hanks of Rowan Creative Linen in “Leaf”.
Interestingly, Creative Linen is technically a worsted weight, but I used a 4mm hook as called for in the pattern and it worked beautifully. I made no modifications and I crocheted a size L as I tend to do with Rowan crochet patterns. As I noted on Ravelry, I worried that the cotton/linen content of the yarn might wreck my hands, but my hands are absolutely fine. I would love to work with the yarn again – the colours are really saturated and it’s very soft.
Seeing as Elsinore is off flying free in the world (and thank you to everyone who made it a trending pattern on Ravelry – that blew my mind!), I have cast on for a new shawl project.
But, Karie, you have way too many shawls!
Yes, but I also have a lot of shawl designs stashed away in my head and I need them to get out!
This shawl will be the very last in my planned ‘Danish collection’ and it will be offered in various sizes. Unlike the other shawl patterns I have released, it will be shown in two different kinds of yarn: 1) a smooth indie-dyed sock yarn and 2) a rustic 2-ply yarn. I am always amazed at how different designs can look depending upon the yarn choice and I really want to showcase this with this pattern.
I have cast on with Navia Uno, an interesting Faroese yarn that I have previously mentioned.
As you can see, the construction of Navia Uno is unusual (at least to this non-spinner) with two very different plies: one very tightly spun and one almost unspun. The resulting fabric is very bouncy and soft.
I have also played around with needle sizing a tiny bit. My go-to needle size for most lace is 4mm – indeed the last time I knitted with Navia Uno I used a 4mm – but I wanted something just a tiny bit firmer. So far I cannot stop putting my needles down just to caress the fabric. It is a bit disturbing, I know.
And I predict more shawls in the future. After all, I just picked up these two beauties from the post office.
Remember how I ‘settled’ for Navia Uno because I couldn’t find my favourite Faroese yarn in Copenhagen? Well, I found an online vendor for Snældan yarn.. I know, I know..
Yarnia is based in Norway and carries a really nice selection of Snældan yarns. Somehow I managed to contain myself and only ordered two colourways in the 1ply: one is undyed dark grey and the other is surprisingly enough an olive green version. I am not quite sure how I managed to up yet another olive green laceweight.. but someone somewhere must be trying to tell me something because I ran into a hailstorm blizzard when I went to pick up the parcel.
Well.
That is not to say that I think Elsinore is a minimal shawl. I started out wanted to capture ‘flatness’ but the simple lines turned out to be really flattering once draped over a person.
Denmark was not just us larking about Viking settlements or eating six types of pork for lunch (true fact!). Denmark was also about knitting.
t 
And then I visited a charity shop where I uncovered a pile of Alt om Håndarbejde (eng: All About Crafts) magazines from the 1970s.
incarcerated (he was charged with bigamy in Norway after marrying a charming Norwegian wench!) and died at 
Inside it looks like any other tiny village church. All but one pre-Reformation fresco have been painted over with chalky white paint (for pre-Reformation frescos in Denmark, 
And this is where it gets very poignant.
Denmark is a small country which is probably the reason I can get away with describing somewhere one hour away from its capital as “rural” and “remote”. I grew up in rural and remote north-west Zealand, not far from this lake.
Tissø is part of a marshy landscape known as Åmosen (literally: the Creek Marsh) which stretches across most of my childhood landscape.
One of my favourite artefacts was not found anywhere near my home, but I think this stone dagger is just so amazing.
black wool that hard to find?) and so I keep dragging it out of retirement.
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