new pattern | ruffalo shawl

I was inspired to make this shawl by my Shimla clutch, remember her?

All pretty pastel ruffles with a whimsical vintage vibration going on (so much yes! I love her).

The frilly delight of Shimla and the joy that only she can bring has now made me think that everything in the whole world of crochet should have ruffles on it. Yep.

If it moves, I might ruffle it.

You have been warned.

I designed the Ruffalo Shawl (like the Gruffalo only ruffley - and don’t even talk to me about how long I have pondered over the spelling of the word ruffley because the answer is very), for The Sewing Box Magazine. It is featured in their latest edition, Issue 8 and the English version of the magazine is now available to buy here.

The Sewing Box Magazine is a wonderful multi-craft magazine published in Spain. The Spanish edition comes out first and is available in print and digital and then a few weeks later the English version is launched, currently digital only but I know that they are looking to print their English version soon so watch this space.

I’d had my eye on them for a while because they feature some amazing designers in all areas of craft but particularly (for me), in the crochet world. So when they contacted me and asked me to collaborate I was over the moon.

Issue 8 is packed full of great patterns patterns and interviews, lots of tops and summer tees like the Thriller Tee from Maria aka Araña Tejedora @a.tejedora and the lovely linen top from Marta @marta.bluu. Tons of amigurumi patterns including a rather cute flamingo from Irene Strange @irenestrange. Lots of knitting patterns, a lovely crocheted shawl from @knittingtheskyline, and some sewing patterns too. It’s one of those magazine that’s jam-packed full of new patterns and new designers to discover and fall in love with and I particularly like that it has a Spanish bias, it feels very fresh and modern.

Right, back to my ruffalo soldier (the puns are endless, I do apologise).

It is massive.

Marvellous.

I like big shawls and I cannot lie.

The shawl is made using aran weight yarn (I used Cascade 220 in the Natural colourway) and the construction is really simple, all trebles (US doubles), really soothing and happy to hook on and then when you’ve finished your base shawl you get to go crazy with your ruffley colours at the end.

You really can go wild with both the colours and the number of ruffle rows, I stuck to neutrals and five rows of ruffles because the shawl was already quite heavy before I added them on so I didn’t want it to become too cumbersome, also the ruffle technique is intense and my hands were sore after doing each row, so much so that I could only do one row per day, ha! what about that for dedication to my craft.

I feel like this shawl is the crochet representation of me; all happily vanilla plain and uninteresting for the most part with just the tiniest hint of wildness around the edges.

I can’t wait to see what colours you choose and how wild your edges are (please be SUPER wild, oh please, oh please, oh please).