Let the page turner shawl keep you cozy, and warm as you snuggle into a brand new written adventure.
Inspiration & Design
Books have always been a part of my life, they were how mom got me to sleep, how I delved into new adventures, how I found quiet and felt safe to process the world. In hindsight, I cannot believe it’s taken me this long to create a stitched memory of my longest friends.
Gracias a mami y papi por siempre estar dispuestos a leerme cuentos (thank you mom and dad for your willingness to read me a story)
The page turner shawl was one of those projects that lived in the quietest part of my brain, a gentle nudge every now and again until I bought a Japanese cable stitch dictionary. When I saw this cable stitch pattern my brain immediately said yes, that can be the spine of a book.
The Yarn
I wanted every corner of this shawl to be tactile and provide that safe feeling of getting lost in a good book. In order to do that I knew I had to use a yarn that we wouldn’t be afraid of getting dirty, something washable and warm. For this I chose Heatherly Sport from wecrochet. A washable 80% acrylic/20% wool blend that comes in what I like to call watercolor shades. The yarn just seems to have a softness about it, almost as if you are viewing the world from a raindrop.
While the yarn does have a softness about it, it’s sturdy enough to hold up to a serious amount of frogging. I frogged this project back twice and I don’t think the yarn looks any worse for wear. Truly a work horse yarn and I love that they are adding more shades to this range.
Can I make this?
The Shawl is constructed in pieces. Wait! Don’t run away, we don’t actually seam the shawl, we just work it in different stages. We start from our center cable, then we pick up stitches on either side of the cable to work our wings. After we complete the winds of the shawl, we block to take away some of the curling at the top edge. Then, we pick up stitches to create a 1×1 rib border.
If any of this sounds daunting to you, I got your back. The paid for fully written pdf pattern comes with a video guide for you to peruse.
Full Description of Pattern
Let this shawl rest on your favorite chair as an invitation or a reminder that there is always time to slow down and dive into a new book with a lovely drink and snack by your side. Not only will the thick cables keep you warm as you get lost in your book but the textured stitches also serve as sensory rest for when those bookish adventures start eating a little bit at your nerves.
Page Turner Shawl
Skill Level – Intermediate to advance
- cable stitches
- front post back post rib
- picking up stitches
Materials
- Yarn – 3 skeins of Heatherly Sport, I worked the shawl in the color butter – Fiber Content: 80% Acrylic, 20% Merino Wool – 328 yards in 100g
- Actual amount used – 230g or 755 yds (70 g of the 3rd skein were left over)
- Hooks
- 3.75mm Furls Crochet Hook for the cable.I find that to match a Furls Odyssey or Streamline gauge I need to go up to a 4mm for clover Amour or Tulip.
- 4mm Furls Crochet Hook for the wings of the shawl
- 4.5mm Furls Streamline for the Front Post Back Post Border
- Stitch markers (4)
Gauge
Gauge measured after wet blocking with a 4mm crochet hook
alternating Hdc and sc in third loop of the hdc stitch
20 Sts
15 rows
Cable stitch with a 3.75mm crochet hook
The cables should measure 2” wide
Rows – 5 repeats (approx 20 rows)
Finished Size
Depth – 20”/51cm at center “V” with border
Wingspan – 56” /142 cm with border
Border – 2” / 4cm
Abbreviations – US Terms
- Ch – chain
- Fsc – foundation single crochet
- Sk – skip
- Sc – single crochet
- Hdc – half double crochet
- Dc – double crochet
- Dc2inc – double crochet increase
- FPdc – front post double crochet
- BPdc – back post double crochet
- Tr – treble crochet
- FPtr – front post treble
- Hdc2dec – half double crochet decrease
- Sc2dec – single crochet decrease
Special Sts
Purchase the Page Turner Shawl on Ravelry
- Ad free written PDF pattern
- workbook to practice the center cable
- scaled video guide for shawl construction
