It’s Finished!

It is always so exciting to finish a project, even when it is a small one. This is how my newest little Playing With Triangles shawlette worked out. I’m very happy with it. It is 34 inches wide across the top and 17 inches long at the point. I haven’t blocked it yet, and may only do a very gentle blocking, since this yarn is largely alpaca fiber it may grown quite a bit if I block it aggressively.

This is all I have left of the yarn I started with for this project. I did some careful calculations to use up as much yarn and get the largest triangle possible. You can look at my original post “Some Pretty Crochet”, to see how much yarn I started out with for this project.

I also used 145 beads in this project. The arrows in the photo above point to some of the beads on the first row I beaded.

When I added the beads I used my handy new tool, the Fleegle Beader, to do the “hoist-on” method. I purchased this tool at the Longmont Yarn Shoppe. It works the same as the tiny crochet hook, the difference is that you can fill the whole shaft of the beading tool with beads, so you don’t have to have an open container of beads while working. In my small house, where there is lots of activity (busy boys, crazy cat and ditzy dog), an open container of beads can be a disaster waiting to happen.

I also really liked that I could load the tool up with beads, cap it with the red stopper, pop it in the tube and bring it along in my project bag when I am on the go. Then, each time I want to add a bead to my project it is ready, without the usual juggling act.

The little notch at the end of the tool (close-up inset in photo) acts like the hook on a tiny crochet hook for holding your yarn while sliding the bead from the tool onto the working loop. The creator of this tool doesn’t recommend it for thicker than “heavy fingering weight” yarn. But I am going to experiment with some heavier yarns and see if it will work for me. Since I have used the same size steel crochet hook for putting beads on a variety of weights of yarn (including a heavy worsted) I think it may work fine.

Though as my mom would say, “You have to hold your mouth just right.” That’s a family saying for the funny faces most of us seem to make when learning something new or tackling a finicky task.

This morning was my Casual Crochet group at Longmont Yarn Shoppe, and I only had a little bit of crocheting left to do on this shawlette. I finished the crocheting, got all my tails woven in and added a pretty mother-of-pearl button to one end for lots of styling options.  Even had my picture taken for the shop’s Facebook page. That was a busy 2 hours.

Edited July 1, 2021 to add: If you would like to learn more about my Playing with Triangles Shawls come join me for the Virtual CGOA conference on July 6th when I’ll be teaching a Zoom Class. More details and registration information can be found in my blog post here or the CGOA Website here.