Forest fraise (long shawl) crochet project

I’ve been making a lot of other crochet projects lately, and I discovered Elegant Yarns Kaleidoscope wool yarn when I made a shawl for a friend.  They make self-striping wool yarn in really nice colors.  So I slowly got some of their forest-colored yarn and started making this Modern Fraise pattern by Tricia Jones (that’s a Ravelry link, so you may need an account to see it).

It comes in four versions — cowl, short shawl, long shawl, and cloak.

Sample page from the pattern.  It shows examples of the cowl, short shawl, long shawl, and cloak versions of this pattern.  Ornate text reads:  “Modern Fraise:  Cowl, Shawl, or Cloak.  Modern Fraise is a custom collared garment that is crocheted to your choice of four different lengths.  It can be made short as a cowl or long as a full cloak.  It is constructed using simple repeats of stitches and stitch lengths row by row to create a complex looking garment that is actually quite simple to construct.”

I went for long shawl.  I wanted to make something for myself that I could wear in the cold Vermont winter and actually get some heat from it.  And also that I could wear at times like now, when some of my health conditions make me feel more chilled than I ought to.

It’s finished according to the pattern, but I’m not actually done with it yet.  The original pattern has a way you can put ribbons in some of the openings.  Instead of ribbons, I plan to continue on the forest theme and crochet plant roots or something, and thread them through the same holes like ribbons.  Haven’t got there yet, but planning it.  Given some problems with getting enough steroids through my J-tube (the stoma leaks, I’m gonna have to get the entire stoma re-dug somewhere else), I’ve been freezing in the middle of summer,  So I’m wearing this thing right now, as I work on the final pieces.

Mel wearing shawl, mostly view of collar and top.

Full shawl with hands in front.

Full shawl in its basic shape.

Full shawl open at front.

Full shawl with arms pulled in.

The way it drapes down the side, from high back to low front.

The back is higher than the front.

Closeup of collar.

Closeup of front.

Holding up an arm, can see bottom border trim.

Closeup of front, while holding hands up.

Bottom border trim.

Mel wearing shawl with arms out.

Mel wearing shawl with arms in.

It’s pretty hard to describe the exact style of this thing, but it has a high vertical striped collar that buttons with wooden buttons, and then uneven horizontal stripes going all the way down.  The colors are various shades of dark and light green, brown and tan, and assorted shadowy greyish-blues.  It really does resemble a mottled forest sort of colors.

I am not disappointed with the comfort at all.  This is soft wool that’s very warm and very suited to my needs right now.  I also used some basic brown wool yarn for the trimmings.

The difficulty of the pattern was… weird.  The actual stitching was not difficult.  But trying to work out what was meant by the stitches mentioned, was.  I did not completely follow the pattern, I deliberately made it larger to accommmodate my size, and also had some accidents with understanding the pattern that I was able to work around without any problems.  The real challenge was just figuring out what was meant by some parts of the pattern, and especially at the beginning I had to rip a lot of things out before I figured out what the intent was.

Overall I’m thrilled with the result and eager to put on the finishing touches of decorations, even though I haven’t decided quite what they’ll look like yet.