A Shawl Without a Name (hopefully to be named soon!) for redclover.

EDIT 7/10: It has a name!! Hooray!!

Closing thoughts/My testing choices:

• I tend to crochet tightly, but since the suggested hook is intentionally large to make an open, drapey fabric, I followed the suggestion, and used a 6.5mm hook. It turned out to be a great hook size for the project.
• I used light fingering weight yarn - The Sanguine Gryphon Little Traveller in the Atlantis colorway. Since it’s a pretty generous skein (560yd), and this pattern is meant for a sock yarn skein of about 400-420 yds, I felt I hit right on target at 392 yards used.
• To complement my tonal yarn choice, I selected metallic, peacock-colored 0/8 beads purchased at JoAnn Fabrics. The variation in color shows up nicely in person, but can be hard to photograph.
• Pre-blocking, the shawl was 36”x18”
• Post-blocking, the shawl is
• I followed the pattern as written. No added rows or embellishments. It’s a great little shawl, and the beads add some sparkle and sass.

Personal Thoughts:

• This was my first attempt at beading, and both redclover and my fellow testers were excellent resources when I had questions. It is a lot of beads, but I highly recommend this one for novice beaders like myself, because it’s easy to get into a good rhythm and gain confidence in your beading quickly.
• One tip from a fellow tester (thank you, estherke) was to anchor the beaded picots at the very end by sl st into the double clusters, instead of the typical picot sl st into the first ch. That ensured my picot beads tipped off the clusters instead of drifting between the clusters (see last photo for example of picot placement “between” clusters).
• The charts were hand-drawn, but very clear. redclover used contrasting colors to show alternating rows. I do love a good chart, but in this case the written directions were generally sufficient. I was able to check my work against the charts when I needed, but for the most part, it’s super straightforward.
• I wanted to make certain I had exactly the right number of stitches in each row, and the right number of rows between beading (since it was a test), so I kept a quick cross-off list for each row. redclover does thoughtfully include stitch counts for all of the beading rows, so it’s very easy to get back on-track if you’ve missed a stitch somewhere along the way. The stitch pattern is also pretty easy to adapt if you need to accommodate a missed stitch, so don’t panic if your count is slightly off - you can fix it with minimal fuss.
• Overall, a clear, well-written pattern for a lovely little shawl with some sparkle :) Excellent for novice beaders, and for ambitious crochet beginners that want to try a shawl, or for experienced crocheters that love a good one skein wonder.

Once again, special thanks to JAMn for gifting me this BEAUTIFUL skein in May. These Sanguine Gryphon yarns are becoming wonderful things. Thank you so much for your generosity.