INTRO
Every once in a while, a crochet project doesn’t go exactly as planned—but sometimes, that leads to something even better. That’s exactly how the Duchess Shrugdigan came to life.
Originally, this piece was meant to be a completely different project, the Duchess Shawl. Actually, a reader of mine has asked me to help her with the instructions for Duchess Shawl, so I started crocheting it in order to me able to write detailed written pattern. However, very quickly I realized that I would run out of yarn, which I couldn’t find anywhere, no matter how hard I searched.
Rather than let the work go to waste, I began thinking of ways to re-purpose it. That’s when inspiration struck. I draped the circle over my shoulders, played around with it a bit, and pinned it around my arms. Suddenly, the shape of a shrug-cardigan started to form, complete with little sleeves and rolled-up shawl collar.

SIZE
Suitable for sizes S, M, L, XL. Duchess Shrugdigan is a one-circle piece and its diameter is 93cm/36.6in.

PATTERN
The pattern is written in US terminology. The diagram provided is for an entirely different type of shawl but I have used it for all my Duchess pieces. The Diagram shows 29 rounds, and for Duchess Shrugdigan a 3-round border is added after forming the elbow-length sleeves.