Crochet has been my creative passion for more than 40 years. No one-sided relationship, Crochet has helped me through tough times, we have created loving gifts for friends (old and new), and commemorated weddings and babies or said “thank you,” or “I’m thinking of and praying for you.”

So why should it be that I just hate those long rows?

And shawls! They start out little and cute with short rows behind the neck when you’re fresh and excited. Then the rows become longer and longer until in the middle of one you stop and need to remind yourself why you started in the first place.

OK, I exaggerate. The truth is, I’m a sprinter and tend to fade in the back stretch. So I designed this shawlette with the worst as the first. Yes, it’s true you have to start with long rows across the shoulders in the beginning, but that’s when we’re excited about the project, so who cares!

Then, by the time you’ve learned the pattern, each row is getting shorter and shorter!

Well… I should mention, there is an edging and they typically have long rows, but – hey – it’s an edging, and edgings are FUN, especially if you use a different color yarn from the ground! And you have a choice of stopping early for a more tailored look or piling on the lace! And, just to be contrary, each successive row of the edging gets shorter!

I call it the “Quite Contrary” Crescent. The classic shape is formed by increasing the shell sizes not the… But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. For now I just want to sit here in my favorite chair with my Malabrigo in my lap and get those long rows out of the way.

So be contrary along with me – it’s fun !

Thanks to EffinEffie for her editing and test-crocheting, and to Ctarski for testing! Also many thanks to Nemosuke for her charting!