4 ply quite frankly is something that never appealed to me and was a little scary too, however I do believe I may have converted myself. Having just completed a shawl using 4 ply I am considering doing another.
I always thought a smaller hook and thinner yarn would lead to more swearing and much slower progress, I was wrong it was not significantly trickier than double knit and it lends itself much more to lacey patterns and more holes means faster progress. It was a little tricky to start with as there was less to hold on to than normal but as it grew and grew faster than I imagined. I started at the end of July and finished in August which is pretty impressive when you realise how many children’s workshops I have taught in that time as well.
The pattern was very straight forward to memorise although I did refer to the diagram more than the written pattern as it was in US terms where as diagrams are universal so it saved a little brain power. I decided against adding the border when it hit the right size as I liked it just as it was. The pattern is free to download and can be found on the lion brand website here it is called the south bay shawlette. I used 4 ply yarn and a 3.5mm hook and worked with my usual pretty loose tension. Depending on the affect you want you could use a smaller hook as recommended on most 4ply yarn bands but I wanted it to be pretty straight forward as it was my first big project in 4ply yarn.
If you have any questions please feel free to drop us a line and we would be happy to help. If you would like a hand getting started why not come along to one of my CrafTEA club‘s on a Friday morning.
Pictures of the finished shawl below. If you do have a go please share your pictures with us via email or social media as we would love to see how you get on.
Happy Hooking, Karen x