YARN Blog Hop: Chunky Knits for Christmas?

Last week I shared my excitement for the launch of Scheepjes YARN – Folk. Do you already have your hands on a copy?

Together with all the other designers who contributed to this issue, I’m joining in on a blog hop to tell you about how my Frida shawl came to life. Kirsten at Haak Maar Raak posted about her adorable Christmas Cuddles on Monday; if you haven’t seen that, you must ooh and ahh over the adorable Santa and his elf.

You’ll have seen my Frida shawl by now. It’s a chunky grey knit with colourful floral embroidery and a buckle to close.

So how did I come up with it? Well, I love the look of embroidery on knit and crochet, and I love a chunky knit. And last winter I saw these cool fleecy wraps which had a buckle to keep them in place and thought: what a great idea, that would work so well in knit/crochet! You can relate I’m sure: I see crochet and knit designs in just about every piece of fabric I come across.

So I put those three ideas together and started knitting. I knit the shawl well in advance, but then I came up against all sorts of head scratching moments when it came to the embroidery. It just wasn’t working out for me. The yarn I had chosen for the embroidery was too fine (I had originally chosen Scheepjes Sweet Treat) and was getting lost in the bulky knit.

So I thought perhaps I should ditch the embroidery altogether and try felt appliques:

Again, it just wasn’t working. The felt was all wrong, and I was starting to feel the stress of the idea not working out how I had intended. In a fit of frustration I balled the shawl and threw it in a corner for a couple of weeks, while I did something else to reignite my creativity.

When I was ready to come back and try again, I decided to use a heavier weight yarn for the embroidery, and settled on Scheepjes Cahlista. I also enlisted the help of a soluble stabiliser and they were a golden combination! All of a sudden it all came together and the creative juices were in full flow.

(The above picture is courtesy of my friend Rebekka, who tested for me.)

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After all the frustration and stress, I felt the most incredible feeling of relief and satisfaction to box this up and send it off. And now, seeing it out in the wild I just can’t stop smiling about it!

Do make sure if you plan on making the shawl that you share your project on Ravelry. The pattern listing is here: Frida Shawl.

Now, Scheepjes is running a giveaway on their Facebook page! You can be in with the chance to win a copy of this issue of YARN – Folk plus all the yarn you need to make your favourite design!

What you need to do is head to the Facebook post from Scheepjes, comment on that post with your favourite design (Frida, obviously!), then be sure to read all of the posts in this blog hop series to find the ‘secret symbol’ hidden in each blog post which will come together to create a secret message. Once you you have the message, return to your original comment on the FB post and add a reply to your own comment with the message. The giveaway will run until 11 November, and a winner will be drawn on the 12th. Good luck!

Tomorrow Jellina is sharing her experience (and her clue), so be sure to visit her blog to read all about it!

Lastly, don’t forget to order your very own copy of YARN (and all the back issues):

Online from:

And your favourite Scheepjes retailers.

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