Not too long ago, I was lucky enough to catch a call on Twitter from the designer of the Veth Shawlette, to test said pattern. As a fan of the Twitch Dungeons and Dragons show, Critical Role, this was a project I was hungry to do.
So, once the pattern was sent to me, I set about finding the perfect yarn. Dani used Caron x Pantone, and Loops & Threads Woollike. I chose the same yarn, but in the colour way of Night Owl and Beige, respectively.
Being a new knitter, I was a little worried at first as I read over the pattern and noticed there were terms I wasn’t familiar with. So, off to YouTube I went to learn how to pick up stitches.
Settling into my comfy chair, and putting up an episode of Critical Role, I cast on.
I struggled quite a bit with the action of picking up the stitches, but thanks to the various YouTube tutorials, I was well on my way to knitting.
This shawl is *very* comforting to knit. Simple increases made this beautifully fun to work up. Getting to the point where I had to add on the buttons, I gleefully thrust my hand into the button bucket and pulled out random buttons. The pattern says to either sew them on later, or use a crochet hook to add them. I didn’t want to wait until the end to put the buttons on. So, I grabbed my wee crochet hook.
After a few tries with the crochet hook, my hands were starting to hurt, as my arthritis decided to rear it’s ugly head. So I quickly came up with a solution to add the buttons on the go.
Grabbing some of my jewelry making supplies, I snipped a small section of some beading wire, and bent it in half. When I got to a spot where I wanted to place a button, I slipped the stitch onto the wire, then threaded it through the button. Then, the stitch was slipped back on the needle where I found it, removed the wire and continued knitting.
I’m sure I made my partner wonder if I was sane, as I laughed gleefully as the buttons flew onto the shawlette as fast as I knit it.
Because I am a new knitter, I was concerned this project would take me a very long time to work up. Dani requested it be done by the end of the month (which gave me a LOT of time to do it in), and I had it done in record time.
I binge-watched a number of episodes of Good Omens, and Critical Role while knitting this. It’s an easy pattern to follow, Dani’s directions were crystal clear, and quite logical. I may or may not have another one of these shawls in my “next up to create” list.
Dani, I can’t thank you enough for trusting me enough to test this pattern. It was a true joy to work up, a gorgeous result, and you’ve now made me hungry for more. You are a gem ❤
