As I write this, thunder is booming in the distance, and Ludo doesn’t like it one bit. Last week I made him watch a lightning safety video with me. I thought I was being cautious and imparting valuable knowledge to this shih-tzu (maybe). But Ludo took it more seriously than I had expected. Unfortunately there was a storm on the very night we—okay, I—had decided we should learn about lightning safety. Ludo’s crate is metal (he sleeps in it for his own safety; if he was out all night he would end up eating crayons until he puked, or something similar) so he reasonably determined it was not safe in a thunder storm. The bed was also deemed unsafe by this cautious shih-tzu, but under the bed was considered acceptable. Unfortunately I was not okay with his plan, since there are things under the bed (mostly dust) he could eat. Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep that night. Hopefully tonight won’t be a repeat. So, what does this have to do with a shawl? Absolutely nothing; let’s move on!

Back in February I posted about this Gabriela Hearst shawl I saw Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie) wearing on And Just Like That (it won’t be hard to find this post, I haven’t done a lot on this blog since). I was/am obsessed with this beautiful rainbow shawl of cashmere dreams. Unfortunately it costs as much as a small holiday (or a very used car, take your pick), so it will likely never be in my closet. This bummed me out and I began to look for something comprable but affordable to a peasant such as I. I found a few and they’re pretty great (check out said February post why don’t you?). But they still weren’t the shawl.

To get something much closer to this magical garment I did a little bit of fashion reverse engineering/stalking Gabriela Hearst (no, not really—it would have been funnier if her name brand wasn’t her actual name—okay not really). Anyway, I learned this shawl was made with Manos Del Uruguay cashmere yarn; and Manos is availible for sale to us non-famous-designer-peasants (albeit not in the cashmere variety). I found a merino confetti rainbow version that was pretty close to the space-dyed shawl of my dreams, and got to work.

Now the actual shawl is knitted and I really can’t knit well, so the yarn kind of sat around a few months waiting for someone to use it. It was also pretty darn expensive at $38 a skein (and I needed 7.5 for a full (enormous) blanket shawl with fringe). Finally, although I am a mediocre crochetter at best, I decided to make my move.

I didn’t use a pattern, because I don’t know how to use a crochet pattern (I would recommend learning this first if you plan to attempt anything with very expensive yarn). But the result was still pretty great!

I used Manos Del Uruguay super-wash marino (Franca) yarn in the color variety “Party.” It has all of the colors of the AJLT shawl but in a confetti rather than space-dye pattern.



I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with myself and with this shawl! I even have some yarn left and am considering starting another one.
