Road to Nowhere. New Crochet Shawl

At last, my new shawl design is here and I love it! It’s something of a miracle because I usually learn to hate my own designs, having worked on them for so long, I’m sick to death of them by the time I hit publish. Not this one though, the DK version has become my new favourite accessory in the last few chilly weeks. It is warm, lightweight and the colours go with everything I wear. Result.

Road to Nowhere is now available on Ravelry where there is a 20% discount until the Saturday 7th March. It is also on Etsy (with the discount too!) and LoveCrafts will follow shortly.

Before I go into more detail (and I’m not going to go on and on, I promise!), I must mention my friend Paul, who’s a photographer. I asked him very nicely to come and take photos of me while I messed about on East Hill, near where I live. If you’re in the Southwest and you’re looking for a photographer then pop over to his website HERE. He does weddings and all that jazz.

It was very cold the day we went up and just before storm Ciara hit. No matter what time of year it is East Hill is guaranteed to be windy and cold. After less than an hour I couldn’t feel my toes. But it seemed like a good place for taking pics and there were plenty of roads that I’m pretending lead to Nowhere but do, in fact, lead to Somewhere.

What do you need to know about the shawl? Well, the pattern comes in both US and UK terms because I know not everyone uses the same terminology. It also has two options: you can choose to make it in DK or 4ply/fingering. To be fair, you could probably make it in any weight of yarn but these are the two included in the pattern.

I have included a crochet chart for the main body, which accompanies the written pattern. There’s no chart for the ribbing because of two reasons. One, it is pretty simple when following the written pattern alone. And two, I won’t lie, I couldn’t work out how to create the chart without it looking like a nonsensical jumble of symbols! Erm, not my greatest moment….

One of the main reasons I often included variations in my patterns is because I’m intrigued about how a design will work in different colours and different yarn weights etc. I’m curious about the differences; there’s a lot to be learned by experimenting and playing. I can never choose a preferred outcome so I like to include more than one!

I haven’t worn the bright one much as it is very loud. I do love my bright colours but I’m not always in a colourful, joyful sort of mood. That’s one of the reasons I named the shawl Road to Nowhere. The writer of the song (by the Talking Heads) says it’s a “joyful look at doom”. Joyful! See? But it is also named thusly because the border reminded me of a road and it is, indeed, a road that doesn’t go anywhere. Just round and round.

I think it’s quite a fitting name. I was feeling a bit “meh” when I came up with it but I actually think it fits rather well. It’s important to me not to name a design project after the colours used due to the fact that other crocheters, who will hopefully make your design, will use an entirely different palette.

I’ve run out of things to say about it now. Have I missed anything? Let me know!

Also, that’s quite enough of the photographs too. We took loads and were there less than an hour. That was plenty. In that short time my nose had gone red, my fingers numb and my feet had turned to ice. Hope you like the shawl (and Paul’s pics!) Cheers. xxx