Saturday, April 2, 2011

Scarlet Seraphina

The Scarlet Seraphina Shawl that I finished in February is now blocked and finished. The varigated reds are so pretty...


And, the shape is so graceful. It looks like wings...


The front...


The back...


When I blocked it, I wanted to be sure both sides matched exactly. So, I inserted a blocking wire down the center back, folded it in half, layed it out on a sheet, stretched out the sides, being careful to match the stitch details, and pinned it in place. I figured out this method on one of my first shawls and I'm so glad I did. It saves a lot of time and frustration of measuring and "eyeballing" both sides to try and get them the same. This guarntees it with so much less work.


Here are two pictures of it blocking. Notice how the stitch details and rows are matched up on the the bottom and top layers...




This was crocheted with one skein of Knit Picks Stroll Tonal yarn in the color, "Gypsy". I used this type of yarn on a shawl I made for a Christmas gift. After I complained about the poor quality of that yarn on my blog...with little fuzz balls, knots and snarly messes through it...Knit Picks sent me an email apologizing and offering to send me another skein for free. Wow! That was a surprise! I called them up and asked for this color. This skein was a lot nicer than the first one I used. It did have some of those little fuzz balls but overall it was much nicer.

I found this "Seraphina's Shawl" pattern on Ravelry and it was free. It's the first time I've made this one and it was a bit confusing for the first dozen rows or so. Luckily, other crocheters posted lots of notes and a chart which were VERY helpful. After a while, I got the hang of it and was fun. I can see myself making another one of these but I think I'll make the next one bigger.

4 comments:

judith said...

Beautiful! I wish I could read the crochet patterns as well as I can read the knitting patterns. My crochet is VERY rusty.

Sandra said...

gotta love a company that stands behind it's projects, and is active enough on line to find problems like this.
Kudos to KP!

Benita said...

I'm going to use your method for blocking a shawl when I help a friend block hers. Thank you!!!

Anonymous said...

Cheryl,

You are so talented! I always enjoy seeing your projects. Your stitches are so precise. Thank you for sharing!

Vanessa