Off the hook... check mate shrug

If I could be bothered to look back over my posts I could probably find the start date of this project. It was some time before Christmas. I may even have had a romantic notion of actually wearing it to keep my shoulders warm over Christmas... a ridiculous idea because we always call our Christmas break with mum and dad and their log fire 'going to the Bahamas'.

Anyway, it became a WIP (shoved into a basket down beside the sofa) about two thirds of the way in due to the monotony of trebling up and down, a hundred trebles or so per row. Boring! Thankfully the motivation to finish it kicked in due to a few chilly mornings and voila! I cannot believe how quick it was to finish after that dang trebling was done.

I remember saying, in the original post, that I was not a shrug wearing kinda person. That is still true. It was the desire to throw on something sleeveless when I finally do sit down and crochet, read or watch a Western (I make no apologies for the latter). Sleeves annoy me, I find it much easier to crochet without. I already had a large ball of the denim shade for the main colour (jeans every day) and then limited myself to just the left over aran weight wools I already had of no less than 100gms. As it happened I couldn't see the colours actually working very well but I wanted it finished and I didn't want to buy any wool. Charcoal grey didn't appear to go very well with the main body colour and the navy looked a bit bright but somehow they seem to have blended.

I'm afraid Hilda, my lovely slimline model is in the attic for the time being and E is having a much needed Saturday morning lie in, so this photo will have to do. Take it from me, it looks better on a person than on a coat hanger!

I did modify the pattern to suit my needs. I stopped after eight rows of treble clusters, for the simple reason that I didn't want a gathering of 'collar' behind my neck, or too much extra fabric round the front for that matter. I tried it on after four rows and it wasn't enough and after eight it seemed just right, the pattern called for twelve rows. The pattern is featured in issue 11 of Simply Crochet, and it's by Kyoko Nakayoshi. I believe it's on Ravelry and it's called the Check Mate shrug. It's an incredibly easy make, even the sleeve ribbing was a complete breeze.