Crochet Your Fade

Another day, another crochet shawl. I really don’t need this many shawls. No one does. I daren’t count how many I have. It doesn’t matter. That’s not the point. It won’t stop me making more; you never know when the next one will be “it”. You know the one, your new favourite and the one you’ll wear all year if you can. There must be “it” shawls for everyone, yes? I know there must be because I’ve found the next “it” shawl!  It’s the Crochet Your Fade by Julme of My Square Hat. Crocheters have a new shawl to rival the very best of knitted shawls!

I made mine as a pattern test for Julme. Nearly a year ago, I saw her post a pic of her new design on Instagram and knew I had to make it. A few months ago we “met” during an online Global Hookup (check out The Crochet Circle Podcast for news about what and when these occur). When she said it was nearly ready I casually offered to test it.  Of course, once I’d done that, I was immediately planning what projects to ditch in favour of this fancy fading shawl.

It is very much like Andrea Mowry’s Find Your Fade, which got bonkersly popular a couple of years ago. Whilst, this crochet version takes inspiration from the original, the stitches are unique. I have no clue about other things to compare and contrast because I’m not much of a knitter (although, thanks to a recent workshop I attended, I can now do both English and Continental style!! Goooo me!!). I have reason to believe that this isn’t as big as the FYF; everyone said that one was huge. This one is long but it doesn’t swamp. The CYF didn’t take very long either and I think it’d be quicker to work up than knitting. Everything crochet is quicker, isn’t it?! One day I would very much love to make that gorgeous, shlankety knitted number but I need to get good with the sticks first. This hooked up version has tempered my Fade urges temporarily, for which I am very grateful.

I used a mixture of different yarns, probably breaking some rules in the process. They were all 4ply and all from independent yarn dyers but the contents of each skein was a different make-up. I ended up with silky high twists next to earthy BFLs next to superwash merinos, and speckles against tonals against splodge colourways (what’s the technical term here, please!?). Basically, I put together a hotchpotch of yarn that was already in stash. If I had a hank hidden away for a future project, it got pulled out for this. Future projects be damned. None of them were safe. I also unearthed leftovers from my own fade design, Holey Smokes! (I now feel like  massive loser, Holey Smokes! isn’t a patch on the Crochet Your Fade).

Last week we went for a jaunt up on Dartmoor. Hound Tor is our favourite part. The boys love scrambling over the tor, which is popular with rock climbers. I didn’t know what the weather would be like up there. It’s only a forty minute drive away but that place is in a world of its own. I took my shawl thinking I might need it. Also took the camera for family snaps and persuaded Husband to take eleventy hundred pics of me with my new crochet fave.

So it has had its first outing and I’m very happy! I think it’s the first of many outings but to be honest, I just like looking at it when it’s hanging on the coat rack!

Here are the yarns I used: looking top to bottom we have: Galactic by Somerset Yarns, Lawn Flamingo by Wanderlust Hues (a gift from by friend Claudia of Crochet Luna), Georgia Rose by Hedgerow Yarns (a birthday present to myself!), I can’t remember what the next one is called but it’s Hand dyed by Kate (it was supposed to go in a second Holey Smokes! but I fell out of love with my own design), Midnight Rave is another Somerset Yarns (from my original Holey Smokes!) and lastly, a beautiful shade of blue from a set of minis I got from Devon Sun Yarns at last year’s Stitch Fest South West in Totnes. Phew!

Right, I’m off to find the next “it” shawl… 😀

xxx