We’re often visited by customers who’re interested in learning how to crochet. Some are already experienced knitters while others are just startint out. One of our go-to yarns in these cases is the Lang Yarns Cloud Tweed, a big, fluffy ball of variegated yarn and a larger crochet hook. For the pattern I’m about to describe you’ll need 1 ball of a medium sized shawl, and 2 for the shawl shown in the pictures. The amount of yarn you’ll need depends on the size you’re going to make, and the finishing. If you add a fringe you’ll need to reserve more yarn.
All you’ll need to make this shawl are 1 ball of Cloud Tweed, which is a 100 grams and has a meterage of 260m per ball, and a 9mm crochet hook. Cloud Tweed is a mixture of mainly mulesing free merino, a bit of alpaca and a bit of polyamide. The yarn is so fluffy because the fibers are “caught” in a polyamide chainette hollow tube. The resulting yarn is very airy, very lightweight and yet very warm.
Always pay attention to the instructions on the label. Here you’ll find all the information you need about the fiber content, advised needle size and gauge. On Lang Yarns balls you’ll also find the advised number of yarns you’ll need for a medium sized sweater for mens, womens and childrens sweaters (10yo). This yarn is meant for 6-7mm needles, but it’s important to know that they choose the needle size that creates a closed fabric like shown below.
For this shawl that’s exactly what we *do* want. We want a fluffy, large and a tad dramatic shawl. Follow the instructions below to make your own shaw 🙂
The make sure we end up with a dramatic drape, I’ve used a 9mm needle. For this tutorial I’ve chosen Prym Ergonomics. The shawl we’re making starts in the center back, and grows a triangle with the point towards the bottom. The pictures show the point pointing upwards, but that’s because it’s crocheted top down.
Let’s make a slip knot and start! Important: US terminology used for this pattern.
Pull the yarn until the slipnot is snug and chain 2.
Make 2 double crochet in the 2nd chain from the hook.
chain 1
Make 3 double crochet (dc) in the same space. This is the base of our triangle, and the end of row 1. Turn your work for row 2.
At the start of row 2 chain 3. This will be the top edge of your triangular shawl and it’s important for it to be stretchy otherwise it’ll pull inwards. It’s best to make 1 chain extra if you’re unsure.
2 dc in first st, ch1. The first cluster of the shawl will always be 3 ch and 2dc in the same space.
After the first cluster you’ll always make sets of 3dc in the chain 1 space of the previous row, then chain 1.
The center of the shawl is where you’ll always work two clusters. This makes the shawl pointy.
At the end of the row you’ll make 3 dc IN the 3d chain of the previous row. Don’t make the 3dc in the space of the ch3 because that makes a hole in the first cluster and you’ll lose the cohesion of the clusters around the edge.
You can see the colors slowly change with every row. Add another first cluster for row 3.
Make a cluster between the first and the middle triangle, then add the two clusters in the middle space. The number of clusters between the first, middle and last will grow with every row. Continue like this until you’ve used (almost) all of your yarn. The image below shows what the shawl looks like after row 20.
For me, one ball was enough to make 19 rows. You can either stop here, frog 1 row and add a fringe, or grab another ball and continue. Your results my vary because your gauge may be different.
If you choose to continue, I’d advise you to try to match the color with the yarn you ended with. In my cause it’s light pink. Be careful not to pull the yarn from the other side of the ball, or your color changes might go in reverse for the second part of the shawl. You can always use the remainder at the end, or for your fringes.
Break off the piece of yarn from the ball that doesn’t match the color and put aside until the end. Continue work with the new yarn. At the end of the project you can weave in the ends, so there’s no need for a knot.
give your shawl a nice soak so it can relax and enjoy wearing your lovely new shawl 🙂
As you can see, in the end I decided not to add a fringe. My shawl is 28 rows long and is huge. I can wrap it around my neck twice and as you can see my colleage can also live in this 🙂
Hope you enjoy wearing your shawl!
