Reveal! Reveal! Reveal! – Life in the Slow Lane Crochet Shawl

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll have already seen the first picture of my new shawl release:

It’s a brand new shawl design that I am preparing to release at the end of this week that I’ve named Life in the Slow Lane.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been very firmly in the fast lane for a long time now.  I whizz past people taking their time to smell the roses and glance over my shoulder wistfully, yet it hasn’t occurred to me to actually lift the accelerator and slow down myself.

I realised that life was getting away from me. That this last year has dissolved quickly as I lost days and weeks to grief and then catching up and getting on with work, family and most recently, a new kitchen renovation.

This shawl is a manifestation of my need to slow down.  To be more mindful. To breathe. Do you ever find yourself holding your shoulders high and tight and discover you haven’t taken a proper breath for who knows how long? This is me.

I can recognise the challenge, but the difficulty is actually making the change!

So this shawl is a sort of roadmap to how I think.  There are rows and rows of filet crochet where you can race, and then suddenly you need to pause and breathe, working the slow lanes.

This will be a good project for a new crocheter, who is ready to go beyond granny squares and has a love for Scheepjes Whirl – don’t we all? There are some fun techniques which will help you see just how easy it can be to make something that looks harder than it actually is.

The pattern has been tested, and I’m busy consolidating all the feedback now, and I plan to release the pattern by either this Friday, or by Monday next week.

To prepare yourself, you’ll need to either stash dive into your whirl collection, or get your hands on a new one.

Carla, who tested for me, used two whirlettes for hers, so that’s also an option if you’d like a solid colour instead.

Scheepjes as always has the full list of whirly retailers on their website, plus you can check out some of the retailers I like to recommend:

Wool Warehouse* ships all over the world, and so does Deramores*.

Caro’s Atelier* is my local yarn store here in Almere.

Black Sheep Wools* is the largest bricks and mortar yarn store in the UK, and Knotty House* has North America covered.

In South Africa you can’t go past Be Inspired, and in Australia head to Yarnish.

You can also check out my designer store at Deramores.com – it’s where I stock some of my designs, and this one will be added when it’s finished too!

*affiliate link