A crocheted shawl for a bride, worked in a sport weight yarn with a subtle sparkle.
Materials
Eight balls of Lion Brand Vanna’s Glamour in Diamond, or the colour of your choice – a sport weight yarn with a metallic strand running through it. A G-6 crochet hook, a large-eyed blunt needle, basic sewing supplies, and a small silver heart charm or button.
About the yarn
The metallic strand is what makes this a bridal shawl rather than an everyday one. It catches light without being showy, which reads better in photographs than a heavier sparkle would.
That strand does make the yarn slightly less forgiving to work with. It has little give, so a dropped stitch will not simply sit and wait – it runs. Work somewhere with good light and check back over your rows more often than you normally would.
Give yourself time
Start this well before the wedding. Eight balls of sport weight yarn is a substantial amount of crochet, and a shawl needed on a fixed date is not a project to begin the month before. Buy all eight balls at once in the same dye lot; a metallic yarn shows a dye lot change more obviously than a plain one.
Blocking
Blocking is the whole finish on a lace shawl. Unblocked, it will look like a crumpled triangle; wetted and pinned out, the stitch pattern opens and the edges become crisp.
Pin it out generously and let it dry completely. Take a photograph of the blocked shawl before it is worn, because it will need reblocking after the day and you will want the reference.
Block it a few days before the wedding, not the night before. It needs time to dry fully.
The charm
Sew the heart charm on securely at the point of the shawl, with doubled thread. It is a small detail and it is the one thing that will be pulled at.
