Going Old Skool with the Strings of Life Shawl
Spring has finally made it’s presence known here in the UK. In fact I would almost say summer has burst through early over the past couple of days – bringing with it glorious sunny skies and pollen counts that have sent my sinuses into shock. Hayfever season seems to have been packed into 3 days and boy has it hit me hard this year, turning my throat into a desert!
That aside, I’m happy to be able to, belatedly bring you my latest free pattern, the Strings of Life Shawl. This one has been a long time coming and was inspired by a beautiful blanket stitch pattern I saw on Pinterest. It took some wrangling to make it work in a triangle but I got there in the end!
It also took me a while to decide on my colour combinations – I’ve made this 3 times now, one in a single colour, one in two colour stripes and finally arrived at the 3 colour option you see here! Along the way I learned that the great thing about this shawl is that it actually works in any colour or colour combo and any yarn. You just keep going until it reaches the size you want or you run out of yarn!!
I love bright happy colours and knew I wanted this to be a summer shawl, made from cotton with a colour punch! When I saw this Women’s Institute Home Cotton Aran Yarn in Hobbycraft, I knew that I had found my right combo!
The name was inspired by the way the tall stitches look like strings on an instrument. It put me in mind of a very old skool house (I believe the cool kids call it EDM these days!) track which I danced my booty off too many a time back in the day. It still puts a huge grin on my face and makes me reach for the lasers! Yes friends, I am an old skool raver!
I can’t even begin to express how important music is to me so decided to name this shawl after this tune as a bit of a tribute – music brings people together in the most amazing, diverse and unexpected ways and that is something worth remembering and celebrating!
Enough of my well spent youth and back to crochet!
You can click here to find the free pattern which, once you get going, is a 4 row stitch repeat so is quite a nice couch project.
The pattern also uses treble treble stitches – you can see how to make these in my post about tall stitches or in the crochet resources section of the site under Basic Stitches. I really enjoy the rhythmic wrapping of yarn round hook in this project, it made a change for me!
I’m keeping it brief today as I’m off to buy some more antihistamine to put me out of my misery, but I’d love to know what you think of the pattern so don’t forget to tag me on insta or your preferred social if you give it a go!
Happy Hooking
Dx
