When one starts a pattern design company it’s all about hitting a critical mass of patterns – you want to show the breadth of your genius, make up all the designs that have been swimming in your head, use all the yarns!
Now that Hooked for Life is, shall we say, mature (at almost ten years old), I have learned that part of my time is best spent revisiting previous works. The yarn it was made in has been discontinued, you’ve figured out a better way to write the pattern, it’s a piece you’ve always loved and doesn’t get much love any more – all of these are reasons to go back to the drawing board.
One of the pieces I have been reworking is the One Step at a Time Shawl.
It first appeared in a book called The Crochet Prayer Shawl Companion by Janet Bristow and Victoria A. Cole-Galo, which was published in 2010. (PS, that’s an affiliate link – Amazon pennies will help keep this new blog running so feel free to click it no matter what you might want to buy there!)
It had a typo in it in the book, plus I wanted to release it individually, so eventually I made it a a stand alone pattern. It’s available on Ravelry.com for $5.00.
The shawl is worked from the bottom up, and after every pattern repeat the next set of “steps” is added, thus the name! Many stitchers have had trouble with the non-traditional construction, and the original yarn has been long discontinued, so I have made a new model, and took the opportunity to make a construction video while I was at it!
The new model is worked in Lion Brand Shawl in a Ball in the Restful Rainbow colorway.
I think it was a terrific yarn for the project, and gives the finished piece a much more modern look, HOWEVER, that skein doesn’t have as much yardage as my original plan did, so instead of working the repeat until there were seven sets of steps, I only did six.
Now an interesting thing about the reboot is that even though I eliminated a full pattern repeat, I got the same finished dimensions after blocking. I think since the yarn has a little bit of halo to it it just worked up a little larger – and I was not fussy about gauge since I rarely am with shawls. My personal theory is as long as you get a pleasing fabric, the finished size isn’t a deal breaker because it is never going to be a fitted garment.
And if you need to take a look at that video to help with the repeat transitions – here it is!
Thanks, as always, for stopping by! MBT