Hygge shawl

Hygge is a Danish word that roughly translates to cosiness, but it’s much more! It’s about cosiness and being in a warm, welcoming environment and enjoying the good things in life. Being with friends and family is hygge. But wearing your favourite sweater with a cup of tea is hygge, too. And working on a cosy wrap, learning new things, and enjoying the process is definitely hygge.

This pattern includes written instructions, video tutorials and diagrams. It’s suitable for the adventurous beginner and is written in US terms.

Crochet hook

4.5mm hook (US size G/7).

Measurements

The blocked shawl measures 185 x 36cm (73 x 14in).

Gauge/tension

To ensure your shawl has similar measurements to mine, I recommend crocheting a gauge square. This is a test to match your tension to the pattern’s tension. The 10 x 10cm (4in) gauge for this pattern is 19 sc and 19 rows when worked with a 4.5mm hook.

Pattern for gauge square

With SW, ch20.

Row 1 (RS) Starting in 2^nd ch from hook, make 1sc in each ch to end, ch1, turn. [19 sc]

Rows 2-18 19sc, ch1, turn.

Row 19 19sc, place stitch marker in last stitch.

Gently flatten your gauge square with your hands and measure it. If your square measures ~10 cm in width and height, your gauge is comparable to the pattern’s gauge, and your final shawl measurements will also be similar. If your square is smaller, re-do the gauge square with a larger crochet hook. If your square is larger, consider redoing it with a smaller hook. The hook size that makes your gauge match the pattern’s gauge is the hook size you will be using during the CAL.

If you can’t match the pattern’s gauge, that’s OK too. It just means that your shawl’s measurements might be different. However, remember that this also might mean you’ll need more yarn than indicated.

Keep an eye on the looks of the crochet fabric, too. You don’t want the gauge square to have obvious holes, as that will show in your shawl, too. Don’t get too worried about gauge, though. In the end, it’s important that you feel good about this project!

Cut the yarn and weave in loose ends when your gauge square is done. You’ll use this later, so don’t throw it away!

Notes

• Colour changing is done by working the last loop of the stitch that’s worked before the colour change in the new colour.
• In between the bobble stitches, crochet over the Catona thread with the Stonewashed to minimize the number of loose ends.
• To make the bobbles pop, pull the next sc extra tight.
• The row numbers in purple indicate the row count when you count the rows continuously throughout the parts.
• The other pattern parts of the Hygge shawl can be found here:
  
  • Hygge Shawl (part 1)
  • Hygge Shawl (part 2)
  • Hygge Shawl (part 3)
  • Hygge Shawl (part 4)
  • Hygge Shawl (part 5)
    
  • Hygge Shawl (part 6)
  • Hygge Shawl (part 7)
  • Hygge Shawl (part 8)
  • Hygge Shawl (part 9)
  • Hygge Shawl (part 10)
  • Hygge Shawl (part 11)
  • Hygge Shawl (part 12)
  • Hygge Shawl (part 13)
  • Hygge Shawl (part 14)

Colour layout

Techniques

Cross stitch embroidery

This pattern is all about cross stitch on crochet. Because practice makes perfect, we can practice this on the gauge square. There is a video tutorial for embroidery, so don’t be disheartened if the embroidery doesn’t work out as you imagined it right away.

Basics of cross stitch

Cross stitch consists of crosses that together form one stitch. You will be embroidering over crocheted stitches, similar to embroidering on embroidery fabric.

To understand the embroidery and read the accompanying diagrams, you need to visualize the embroidery grid on the crochet fabric. Take your gauge square and hold it up to the light. You will see the light shining through the 4 corners of each stitch (you might need to stretch the gauge square a bit to see this). These corners are the corners you’re going to make crosses in. The easiest way to make a cross stitch is as follows:

Imagine the four corners are called A, B, C and D, starting in the left upper corner and going clockwise.

• Step 1: Insert your threaded needle from the back to the front in B.
• Step 2: Insert your needle from the front to the back in D over the front of your work.
• Step 3: Insert your needle from the back to the front in A over the back of your work.
• Step 4: Insert your needle from the front to the back in C over the front of your work.

You repeat this for each stitch, keeping in mind that adjacent stitches share their corners (So the B and C corners of one stitch are the A and D corners of the stitch to the right). When you insert your needle in a corner, try not to split threads from previous cross stitches.

If you prefer to work your A-C line before your B-D line, that’s fine, too. It’s recommended to keep the order in which you make the ‘legs’ of your cross stitches the same throughout the project tough.

Yarn lengths

You will have to switch colours in the patterns (more on that later). Taking a long piece of colour might seem advantageous so you won’t run out when you embroider. However, long lengths are difficult to pull through and will knot. It’s better to have smaller pieces of ~50cm (20in). This means more ends to weave in, but it will benefit the look of your embroidery.

Starting, ending and changing colours

To start with a colour or switch colours while embroidering, weave your thread through a couple of stitches at the back of your work next to the stitch you want to embroider. Weave back and forth to secure your yarn. Now, you can start making cross stitches. When you finish a colour, weave your thread repeatedly and cut off the remaining yarn.

Reading embroidery diagrams

The embroidery diagrams are schematic representations of your cross-stitch pattern. Each square (pixel) in your diagram represents a stitch in your crochet fabric. Coloured squares are stitches that will be embroidered; white squares will not be embroidered.

As you can see, the embroidery diagram for the gauge square is made of 19 pixels in width and height, just as your gauge square is 19 sc in width and 19 rows in height. The letter in each coloured square represents the colour in which the cross stitch is worked. You can find the key to the letters in the colour table.

Embroidery diagrams aren’t read like crochet diagrams because there isn’t a set order in which you embroider your stitches. In the end, what counts is that all stitches are made. Generally, it’s easiest to start reading a diagram on one side and work your way towards the other. It is essential to keep counting the stitches in the diagram and in your work. To help you with the counting, thicker lines have been made in the diagram every five stitches.

To practice, look at the gauge square diagram on the next page. As you can see, each row in the pattern uses only one colour. It’s easiest to work in horizontal rows from top to bottom or bottom to top, finishing a row before you move on to the next colour.

Some patterns in this project will be straightforward, like this heart. Others will be more intricate and require you to switch colours more often. In the end it doesn’t matter in which order you cross stitch the stitches.

To practice, embroider the diagram on the next page of your gauge square. Don’t feel disheartened if it doesn’t look perfect on the first try. You will get lots of practice!

Blocking your shawl

Blocking is the process of wetting your crochet piece to give the stitches extra definition and to work out any minor flaws in the shape. When you block your work, the tension in the stitches is more evenly divided, which means that your stitches simply look better after blocking.

Because this project is worked on in one piece, we will block once at the end of part 13. Because Catona is 100% cotton and Stonewashed is a cotton blend, I recommend wet blocking over any other blocking method. I have a full tutorial on wet blocking.

Videos

Please note: the videos use UK terms, and the pattern here US. So any video dc (double crochet) is a pattern sc (single crochet).

Shawl

With SW, ch60.

Row 1 (WS) Starting in 2^nd ch from hook, 59sc, ch1, turn. [59 sc]

Row 2 (RS) 59sc to end of row, ch1, turn.

Row 3 Repeat row 2.

Row 4 5sc, change to Colour A, bobble, *change to SW, 3sc, change to Colour A, bobble; repeat from * another 11 times, change to SW, 5sc, ch1, turn. Cut strand of Colour A. [13 bobbles, 46 sc]

Row 5 Repeat row 2.

Row 6 3sc, change to Colour B, bobble, *change to SW, 3sc, change to Colour B, bobble; repeat from * another 12 times, change to SW, 3sc, ch1, turn. Cut strand of Colour B. [14 bobbles, 45 sc]

Row 7 Repeat row 2.

Row 8 Repeat row 4 with Colour C.

Row 9 Repeat row 2.

Row 10 Repeat row 6 with Colour D.

Row 11 Repeat row 2.

Row 12 Repeat row 4 with Colour E.

Row 13 Repeat row 2.

Row 14 Repeat row 6 with Colour F.

Row 14 Repeat row 6 with Colour F.

Row 15 Repeat row 2.

Row 16 Repeat row 4 with Colour G.

Row 17 Repeat row 2.

Row 18 Repeat row 6 with Colour H.

Row 19 Repeat row 2.

Row 20 Repeat row 4 with Colour I.

Row 21 Repeat row 2.

Row 22 Repeat row 6 with Colour J.

Row 23 Repeat row 2.

Don’t cut SW, place a stitchmarker in the last stitch. Weave in all coloured ends.

Diagram