Pinterest Review - A Gorgeous Shrug

Love my shrug!

I came across this pin about 2 months ago on Cre8tionCrochet and immediately pinned it.  I've got lots of things on my Knitting & Crocheting board on Pinterest, but it seems like there's always time to pin, but rarely time enough to do all the lovely projects that we pin.  This shrug was so absolutely beautiful that I just had to immediately put down everything and get to work.

I used her tutorial for the Foundation Chain Double Crochet (FCDC) stitch mentioned in the post. I'd never done it before and anything that makes the foundation look better, twist less and cause me to swear less is two thumbs up in my book.  She links to the tutorial on her site and it really is an easy stitch and turns out beautifully.  Having said that my only complaint with the tutorial was not telling me what to do at the end of it.  I learned to crochet about 30 years ago.  My sweet neighbor, Hazel Blum, taught my sisters and me, but we did very basic stuff.  Everything else I learned was self-taught and sometimes what is obvious to a crocheting pro is not to me.  So just in case there are others like me out there, allow me to state the obvious…you need to slip stitch into the top and make your shrug into a loop.  Goodness that sounds like a rubbish explanation doesn't it?  Perhaps this is why I don't write my own patterns.

Either way, once you've slip-stitched and made your project into a loop (joined it to the beginning of your work…yes, that sounds better) you begin working on your rows from there.  When you're all done with the shrug you go back and sew up the gap left at the beginning.  So, it would probably be prudent to say that you should leave yourself a nice sized "tail" at the beginning of your work.  This way you won't have to cut a piece of yarn just to sew that little bit at the beginning.

Remember the tail at the beginning so you can close your work

My explanation still rubbish?  This video from Crochet Geek explains and shows you how it's done much better than I can!

Cre8tionCrochet also tells you how to make the shrug bigger.  When I completed 100 of the FCDC I looked at it and said, "Dude…no way this is going to fit" so I did 120 FCDC and worked from there. Yeah…don't do that unless you know you need to.  Your work will stretch when you wear it.  So now I have a shrug that looks great and then falls down too far after it's on me for 5 minutes.  I made a pink one for a friend and now that it's completed and the size looks good I'm going to make another one for myself without any adjustments!

If you've got a few hours to spare and know the basics of crocheting you can knock this shrug out quickly.  This shrug is absolutely gorgeous and easy.  Cre8tionCrochet did a wonderful job with this pattern and was so generous to share it!  Her pictures are so much better than mine too!

Even though the shrug I made for myself is a tad bit big I've gotten numerous compliments on it.  In fact the very first time I wore it to the bus stop one of the ladies there grabbed me and asked me where I bought it!  I was thrilled to be able to say that I made it myself.