These shawl pins are fast and inexpensive to make, and are a nice gift with a handmade shawl or scarf, or for knitters and crocheters you know who wear their own handmade shawls or scarves on a regular basis. The scarf it's on in the picture is one my daughter knitted for herself without a pattern.

It can be made using brass or sterling wire as well as the copper shown in my example. I used copper because it's inexpensive and easily obtainable at hardware stores.

For this project you will need:

Copper wire in 18 and 24 gauge
beads- I used 5 mm pink pearls from my stash

Pliers- round nose and needle nose
hammer- it doesn't have to be a jewelers hammer, I just used a small 10 ounce household hammer
bench block or something hard to harden the wire on with the hammer
file for smoothing the wire ends- a nail file will work for this. I use an inexpensive large file from the hardware store
pen or something of similar circumference to use as a mandrel

Cut 9 inches of the 18 gauge wire. It seems like a lot, but any excess can be trimmed off and the coil, the spiral and the catch take more wire than you'd think. 2 and half inches from one end, coil the wire around the pen.


Bring both ends around the pen neatly so they are oriented in the same direction the coil on the end looks like a very large safety pin coil. Slide the pin out. Hammer the short end lightly to strengthen it and file the end smooth.


Look at both wires, and about 1/4 inch further in from the end of the short wire, use the needle nose pliers to make a 90 degree bend up towards the short wire in the long wire. 1 inch from that, curve the wire around the round nose pliers and bring it back down. Make another 90 degree bend where it meets the first bend.


Orient it so the catch wire is the back coil, and bend the catch towards the back. Also make a spiral in the ends of the wire, and a small bend in the end of the pin wire.


Now for the fun part, ornamenting the pin. I wired on pearls using the 24 gauge wire. Wrap the wire around the catch side and wire beads along it. You don't have to use loops of pearls like I did, have fun. This part is like wire doodling. Make sure your wraps are tight and neat and that the ends of the fine wire are cinched down tightly so they don't catch the yarn.




Because of the thickness of the wire, these work best with hand knits, crocheted pieces and lace with big enough holes that you don't have to pierce the fabric.