The Virus pattern has been around a while and no one seems to know who the designer is. To make mine, I used the free charted version shared by Woolpedia.de. There is no written version so I stopped to write it out for friends/Yarnivore customers. If you would like my written version, message me and I’ll send. (I don’t want to post as a design since I don’t own it - don’t want to add to the confusion over who the designer is!)

Why did I write up a pattern when a chart is avail? We have a lot of crochet friends who do not read charts, so when a customer wanted to make a Virus shawl but was chart-challenged, I offered to CAL with her. After making several swatches, I hooked in for real with this one.

Tricks you need to know:

1. Basics (chain, sc, dc)
2. decreases (skipping spaces/chains)
3. Increases (more than one dc into a space)
4. optional but highly encouraged: chart reading (Why encouraged? Because you can see the structure better in a chart than in written form.) If you’re a Yarnivore friend/customer/fan….we’ll be doing a CAL on this pattern for the chart challenged. :)

Yarn
The Transitions cake is one long gradient and about 660 yards, (decent size for this shawl). While the yarn is very loosely plied, and therefore easily split (as in breathing on it), I’m not finding it a problem. Those of you who are total split-phobes will need to steer clear but many of us will find working with it much easier than expected. Also, the texture is lovely! Because it’s a cotton/acrylic blend, it won’t stretch as much as 100% cotton and it will wear a little better.

Now that I’m done, I can fully appreciate the gradient - looks fabulous in this pattern!

Working Notes:

6/12/17
Have done numerous swatches and now hooking for keeps on this shawl.

6/14/17

1. If you want to make sure your top edge is stretchy enough, add a ch stitch to every start. E.g., in row 2, ch 4 instead of ch 3. (Many thanks to the Raveler who suggested this; I can’t find them again for attribution.) I did this on some swatches and liked the effect so did it on the full project.
2. For Chart readers: Row 4 in the chart has an error, or at least creates some confusion. At the midpoint, you are to ch two segments. The chart shows the number 7 but also shows 10 dots, indicating two different numbers for the ch. According to numerous Ravelry projects, you should ch 7 here, not 10.

6/15/17
Surprisingly easy to work beyond chart (which only goes to row 10)… there are four repeating rows - broadly put, they are
Row 1: Create ch-sp, anchor with sc
Row 2: DC into ch-7 sp with some ch-4 segments, anchored by sc
Row 3: DC again, this time with fewer ch-4 anchored by sc
Row 4: DC, separated by ch1 with sc anchor between dc clusters.

6/20/17
Done! Used all but 2 feet of the ball; finished on the Row 2 listed above (first row of DC into ch-sp) but looks fine. :) This yarn said it was 150 g, but I weighed it and found it had 160 g - so take that into your calculations.
The finished shawl reaches down to the bottom of a mid-length dress (just above the knee). This is a perfect size for taller/bigger bodies and still manageable for petites.