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This pattern is the second pattern from the Read with me collection. This is a collection I am building that is inspired on books I’ve read. Read more about this collection here.

This particular pattern is inspired on a short story from a book called ‘the shell collector’ by Anthony Doerr. Read more about the inspiration here.

The Shell collector lives in a small hut at a remote beach in Kenya. We will visit him and experience the wonderful world of conchology. We will see the shells like he sees them; with our hands as we crochet this wrap. The spirals and whorls, the hard and slick surface, smooth within and worn down by the force of the sea on the outside. Each crochet section will start with a little story about a shell and its inhabitant, so as we crochet the wrap, we will collect all sorts of shells and learn about them.

This pattern consists of

• Written instructions (US terms) accompanied by step-by-step photo’s
• A separate PDF with the full chart for the whole wrap
• Stitch counts for every row, even if they are repeated, so you will always know if you’re doing it right. No more frogging!
• A list of helpful links to tutorials
• A separate PDF without pictures as a printer friendly option

Used Techniques

• All stitches are inspired by shells and the different shapes they occur in, as well as other things you can find on the beach, like a filet crochet clam shell design, nautilus motifs and much more.
• standard stitches (US terms): slip stitches, chains, single crochet, half double crochet, double crochet, treble
• Special stitches: sc2tog, hdc2tog, hdc3tog, dc2tog, dc3tog, popcorn-st, puff-st
• Special techniques: join as you go (explained with photo’s and a chart), PLT-join as invented by Rachele Carmona from Cypress Textiles (explained with photo’s and a link to her tutorial), simple filet crochet (also charted)

Two Sizes

There are two options given in this pattern:

• There is a small cowl version that uses Scheepjes Alpaca Rhythm, which is a lace yarn. Because it is so thin and soft, it will give you a very light cloud-like cowl that you’ll love to snuggle with. The cowl is made with a button band and uses 8 buttons. You can choose to button it up or down, which can also create a light shoulder shrug instead of a cowl.
• There is also a large blanket wrap version that uses Scheepjes Stone Washed. This is a lush soft cotton/acrylic blend that will give you a very generous sized wrap you can almost live under.

The pattern was tested in English. The Dutch version was not tested, so little typos may occur. The chart was also not tested separately, but made after the (tested) written pattern. Please contact me via email if you have found a mistake, or if you need help with the pattern.
aspoonfulofyarn@hotmail.com

I hope we can collect pretty shells together!