Flower Shawl...........

It has been a very long time since I have had a project finish.  I'd like to introduce you to the Flower Shawl.   I know you have seen this pattern before, actually in 2011 I made two of them after my dear friend Teresa sent me the chart for the Japanese Flower pattern.  That was just when I was realizing how super special blogging friends can be, they send you a pattern just to help you out.  

I am going to weddings in August and November  I had another dress picked out to wear and then I saw this sleeveless dress at Dressbarn one day when dropping in to use up a few spare minutes between patients.  The moment I saw it I knew I had to have it.  It is sort of a light denim, embroidered, crinkle dress that is long, not something I usually wear as I am so tall.  But it fits and it was a great price so I bought it on the spot.  The thing is it needed some sort of wrap to make it comfortable in cool air conditioning.  Enter in this shawl.

I found this Appalachian U.S. Organic Cotton yarn when visiting my dear friend Lynda in North Carolina at Silver Threads & Golden Needles yarn shop.  While there I looked for only yarn that would work to make a shawl for this dress.  This cotton yarn is so soft and lovely, a beautiful gentle ecru color.  It feels a bit heavier than the sport weight it states on the yarn band, still it was perfect for this shawl.

I searched and searched Ravelry for crochet motif type shawls and have to say nothing struck my fancy.  So after much contemplation I decided that a big flower shawl would be perfect from my old stand by pattern.  I used a size J hook and added some length to the petals by adding more chains and stitches to the last two rows.  A total of 24 flowers were made, joining as I went along.  Eight flowers for the top row, seven for the middle and six for the bottom row.  After seeing I was rapidly running out of yarn I made a quick call to the shop to order two more skeins.  One would have been sufficient but crochet is a yarn suck as you know, it eats yarn at super rapid speeds.  I wanted to be sure I had enough before the store did not have any more skeins.  I used 3 3/4 skeins of yarn, approximately 725 yards.  The finished shawl measures 72 inches across by 18 inches wide.

So here it is the finished shawl and I have to say it feels just lovely to wrap around my shoulders.  I hope it doesn't look too crafty, like a beginner Girl Scout project.  Nothing against Girl Scouts, I was one myself.  You know what I mean.  I don't want to look like a hippy you know all flower power and everything like that.  Although we could all use a bit of peace and love right now that is for sure.  Let me know what you think, honestly what you think, don't fill my head with a lot of rubbish if I am going to look like a nut I want to know I am going to look like a nut.

I leave you with the stand off.  This was taken yesterday afternoon.  No barking occurred just lots of looking from both sides.  This is not the rogue deer of Friday's post, this is a new one that gratefully kept its distance.

Have a great week everyone.