Not Quite Undead: In Which Count Sockula Has a Ball...

...Or maybe a cake. Muahahaaa. 

For some reason Count Sockula has gone self-striping yarn cake crazy and dragged out nearly all of them in my extensive collection. Then in a frantic burst of energy I crocheted four new shawls.

This one is done with Premiere Sweet Roll, in Cheesecake, Spearmint and Butterscotch.

 

 

 

The tumbled one in warm colors is a Caron Cake. 

 

Adapted from a knitting pattern, this shawl is meant to work up fast. It's worked back and forth as a square, from the center out, BUT with one open side, so it drapes like a cape. (Count Sockula and capes just go together.)

Count Sockula's Stitch of Choice for these shawls is the Extended Single Crochet (esc): start as if to make a regular SC: pull up loop, yo, pull through one lp on hk, yo, pull through both loops on hk.

This creates a soft airy stitch, almost like thick lace, especially if you're using BIG hooks, such as K/10. Or all the way up through P. You know...the higher 'alphabet' hooks. Haven't had the courage yet to try a Q.

But you could work the entire shawl in sc, esc, hdc, or really any stitch.

This pattern is a multiple of 4, plus 2 (counting the ch-1 turning stitch for sc or esc).

There are five increases (one at each 'point' of the square). Start on 17 stitches. With one increase at each open end of the square, there will be three stitches between increases.

Work one row of sc without increasing: 17 sts.

Now switch to Extended Single Crochet. The end increase is two esc, every OTHER row. The 'inside' increase is esc, ch 2, esc, all in the same stitch.

Each 'leg' of the square should be the same size/number of stitches between increase points.

This sounds far more complicated than it actually is, so just keep working and trying it on until it's as big as you want.  It will make a mini-shawl or an enormous drapey thing.  Your choice.

 

Some brands I have used:

Bernat Pop: 5 colors in each cake. Acrylic, thick, soft, and lofty. About 5 oz. Tends to run thick and thin where it shouldn’t.

Premier Sweet Roll: 3 colors. Tighter, sleeker. Bouncy. About 5 oz.

Caron Cakes: 5 colors. Hairy like a werewolf! Good loft, with some wool content. About 7 oz.

Lion Brand Mandala: 6 colors. Hairiest of all, but hard and thin, a #3 as opposed to the #4 of the others. A starving werewolf? Nice colors, though. About 5 oz.

This has been mentioned in many other places: Both the Bernat and Sweet Roll were riddled with KNOTS, tying one color to the next, or else really cheap-looking, badly-done Russian Joins (Good thing I learned how to do my own Russian joins), forcing Count Sockula to cut and join many times.

(Another approach is to work up three big granny squares of the same size, then stitch them together, one in the middle, one on opposite ends of the middle square, to form a giant triangle. It was a 70s thing.)

One of any above cakes will make a small shawl. If it's Caron it will make a larger size. Two cakes will make an enormous one. It's fun and fast. You might have time now. Carry on.