Did you know that March is Ravelry's National Crochet Month? While Ravelry is not a nation (and I think the nation in question is not mine), it does coincides with me finishing a big crochet project. If you are a relatively experienced crocheter, you will know that crochet works up a lot faster than knitting. I spent less than two weeks making this shrug and I reckon I could even have had it finished within a week if I had worked on it exclusively.

The pattern is Fifi from the new Rowan Holiday Crochet book. (You can actually win a signed copy of the book on Ravelry right now. Go here for details) and I used just over four hanks of Rowan Creative Linen in "Leaf".

Interestingly, Creative Linen is technically a worsted weight, but I used a 4mm hook as called for in the pattern and it worked beautifully. I made no modifications and I crocheted a size L as I tend to do with Rowan crochet patterns. As I noted on Ravelry, I worried that the cotton/linen content of the yarn might wreck my hands, but my hands are absolutely fine. I would love to work with the yarn again - the colours are really saturated and it's very soft.

Seeing as Elsinore is off flying free in the world (and thank you to everyone who made it a trending pattern on Ravelry - that blew my mind!), I have cast on for a new shawl project.

But, Karie, you have way too many shawls!

Yes, but I also have a lot of shawl designs stashed away in my head and I need them to get out!

This shawl will be the very last in my planned 'Danish collection' and it will be offered in various sizes. Unlike the other shawl patterns I have released, it will be shown in two different kinds of yarn: 1) a smooth indie-dyed sock yarn and 2) a rustic 2-ply yarn. I am always amazed at how different designs can look depending upon the yarn choice and I really want to showcase this with this pattern.

I have cast on with Navia Uno, an interesting Faroese yarn that I have previously mentioned.

As you can see, the construction of Navia Uno is unusual (at least to this non-spinner) with two very different plies: one very tightly spun and one almost unspun. The resulting fabric is very bouncy and soft.

I have also played around with needle sizing a tiny bit. My go-to needle size for most lace is 4mm - indeed the last time I knitted with Navia Uno I used a 4mm - but I wanted something just a tiny bit firmer. So far I cannot stop putting my needles down just to caress the fabric. It is a bit disturbing, I know.

And I predict more shawls in the future. After all, I just picked up these two beauties from the post office.

Remember how I 'settled' for Navia Uno because I couldn't find my favourite Faroese yarn in Copenhagen? Well, I found an online vendor for Snældan yarn.. I know, I know..

Yarnia is based in Norway and carries a really nice selection of Snældan yarns. Somehow I managed to contain myself and only ordered two colourways in the 1ply: one is undyed dark grey and the other is surprisingly enough an olive green version. I am not quite sure how I managed to up yet another olive green laceweight.. but someone somewhere must be trying to tell me something because I ran into a hailstorm blizzard when I went to pick up the parcel.

Well.