Happy Shawl

Happy Shawl by Annelies Baes

What Is Being Made

The Happy Shawl is a lace crochet shawl designed to showcase a special handdyed yarn from your stash. Featuring a geometrically openworked design with motifs resembling happy little planes, flies, or wings, this shawl creates an elegant and airy finished piece. After blocking, the shawl measures 180 centimeters (71 inches) across the wingspan and 60 centimeters (23.5 inches) in depth, making it a substantial accessory suitable for draping over the shoulders or wearing as a wrap.

Crochet Techniques and Construction

This intermediate-level crochet pattern employs lace-making techniques to create an openworked design that allows the handdyed yarn to shine. The construction relies on geometric shaping through strategic increases and stitch placement, building the shawl outward from a foundation to achieve its triangular or crescent shape. The pattern utilizes chain spaces and double crochet stitches as foundational elements, with special attention to working stitches directly into chain stitches rather than around chain spaces, which is essential for maintaining the integrity of the lace structure.

Stitches Used

The Happy Shawl pattern incorporates the following crochet stitches and techniques:

• Chain (ch) – the foundation stitch used throughout the pattern
• Chain-space (ch-sp) – openings created by chains that form the lacy aesthetic
• Double crochet (dc) – a fundamental stitch used extensively in the body of the shawl
• Treble crochet (tr) – a taller stitch that adds height and openness to the design
• Double treble crochet (dtr) – an even taller stitch for creating dramatic lace effects
• Slip stitch (slst) – used for joining and securing stitches
• Picot chain-space (Pch-sp) – a special stitch that creates decorative picot details within chain spaces, constructed by making an 8-chain picot secured with a slip stitch in the 3rd chain from hook, followed by 5 chains and 2 double crochets positioned in the picot chain-space
• Picot 2 (P2) – a simpler picot variation made with 3 chains and 1 double crochet in the 3rd chain

Materials and Yarn Requirements

The Happy Shawl pattern calls for one skein of Miss La Motte yarn, a 100% merino wool single-ply yarn. Each skein provides 100 grams of yarn with 360 meters (394 yards) of yardage, sufficient to complete the entire shawl. The pattern sample was worked in the shade Happy Heart. A 3.75 millimeter crochet hook is required to achieve the proper gauge and fabric drape for this design. The use of a single-ply merino wool yarn allows the handdyed colorwork to display beautifully while providing the elasticity and softness characteristic of merino fiber.

Pattern Notes

This pattern uses UK crochet terminology throughout. Stitch markers are employed to help track pattern repeats and construction progress, with abbreviations provided for placing (PM) and removing (RM) markers as needed. The pattern emphasizes the importance of working double crochet stitches directly into chain stitches rather than around chain spaces to maintain the intended lace structure and geometric design integrity. Blocking is essential to achieve the finished measurements and to properly open up the lace elements of the design.