My First Crochet Virus Shawl

I've been crocheting for quite some time now, but up until this project, all my pieces have been on the simple side. It was at my monthly crochet group that I saw someone creating this beautiful pattern. She was kind enough to send me not only the printed pattern, but a YouTube video on how to stitch it. The original video proved too confusing for my first virus shawl, so I found THIS ONE, which was stitched in the round, rather than as a triangular shaped shawl.

I also started this with some yarn that was too fuzzy and slippery. So I went to the store and looked for yarn that was more "sturdy." I settled on Caron Cotton Cakes Yarn in the color "Seashell." It's actually 50% cotton and 50% acrylic, which is exactly what I was looking for, even better actually.

This yarn isn't a fuzzy-ish yarn that looks like it would pill easily. In fact, it almost has more of a string-like quality to it. It drapes beautifully, as it isn't stiff at all. The color choices are stunning too.

I liked this finished project so much that I decided to keep it on display in my living room rather than give it away. It's one that I will definitely be making again.

Alison's video is fairly easy to follow, but I must say that it really took a lot of watching the video over and over again before the pattern got ingrained in my mind. Counting is the most important part of this one, but I like the fact that I can count in sets of 10 (or 20 on the corners). I find it much easier than counting a long row of say 50 or 100 individual stitches across.

Here are pictures of the labels for the Caron Cotton Cakes. I used two cakes in total for this project. The finished size is about 40 inches.

These were purchased at Michael's. You can usually get a pretty good price there. Right now they're offering a BOGO 1/2 off, which at $12.99 a skein puts the total project at just under $20.00.

Like I said, I highly recommend Alison's video, but follow it carefully and watch it a lot. It was easy to get off-track with this one. I'm looking forward to making this one again too.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today and I hope you have a great and creative day!