Yarn Skills: Lana Grossa

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Pattern Surprise

In 2020, I used patterns from higher end yarn company (Shibui and Lana Grossa) for the first time and made an interesting discovery. Much to my surprise, I liked these patterns better than ones I had used from companies like Lion, Red Heart, Berroco, etc. A whole lot more. I’m just not sure exactly why. Full disclosure, I received all the patterns free with my various yarn purchases (all on sale). The first pattern was for the Shibui Medley Stole. Honestly, this one is so simple, I could have probably figured out how to make it without a pattern. However, I appreciated the designer’s explanation as to why she didn’t slip the first stitches of each row. It was printed on nice, thick paper that didn’t require a clip board which I also liked. This pattern really lets beautiful yarns shine and I would make it again. On the Shibui website, this pattern is $10.00. The other patterns were two PDF booklets from Lana Grossa that I got with the purchases of closeout Cashmerino yarn. The first is called Luxury Shades and has 7 scarf/shawl/stole patterns, 4 crochet, 2 knit and one that is a combo of knit and crochet (something that I wish was seen more often). All of the patterns used charts which is OK with me. I have made two of the crochet projects in this one and found that I didn’t need the charts anymore after the first few rows. The other is called Shades and has only one patterns for a crochet shawl. I love this pattern so much I’ve already made two – one for Mom and one for me. Again, this pattern uses charts. I don’t care for PDF patterns so I need to print these out. I like paper patterns because I can add notes, highlight, etc. One thing I love about these patterns is that they have interesting edging details that really make the items shine. My successes with these patterns has me much more interested in other pattens by higher end yarn manufacturers. Recommendations?

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Comfort Crochet

I had a couple big kitting project fails recently (more about them in another post), so I decided it was time for a comfort crochet project. What is comfort crochet? Let me explain.

I have been crocheting since childhood, so it is much easier for me than knitting. I’m fairly fast, can confidently read patterns and can figure out how to fix problems as I go. That means that I rarely have a project that I end up hating after spending hours working on it. I don’t get frustrated with crochet so the time I spend stitching is truly relaxing and restorative. An added bonus is the boost to my confidence and confirmation that I actually can stitch! None of this is true with my knitting yet (I know – time and practice). A comfort crochet project is one that is smaller in scale, like a scarf or shawl, fairly simple to stich and uses up stash yarn.

Comfort crochet project came up more often during 2020. I made three different shawls during the year, one for my Mom and two for me. When I needed a break from my Shibui Medley stole project, I would work up one of the shawl projects. For all three projects, I used Lana Grossa patterns. Here are pictures of the patterns and my version (all yarn was from my stash).