Purple Crocheted Scarf

Seeing as I had a whole month off to make things for Christmas this year, I decided to set myself a challenge: I've been getting back into crochet with some guidance from Styna, so I wanted to see if I could still design a pattern. I dug out a lovely, hand-dyed purple sock yarn from my stash and set to work on a present for my Mr's sister in law, Poom.

Since I hadn't done this in a while, I decided to reverse engineer a pattern from a picture, so I had a hunt for scarves I liked. I came up with this: Crochargosy, by Christie Pruitt. I downloaded the picture, but not the pattern, and (after several hours wrestling with maths) I came up with a reverse engineered recipe. It was a proper b*****d. I got so tangled up in the words that I had to make a diagram for it, which I've never done before. I won't publish my version, because it makes my eyes hurt (and I'm sure the original is much better), but I will put up the diagram if people want to see it.

The scarf turned out really well, though, which confirms my belief that most crochet and knitting is one part skill, two parts hope and two part magic. The yarn (the ball band of which I have misplaced) was very pleasant to work with, with a gradual variation of colour that gave the scarf a lovely mottled appearance. I made it relatively short, partly because of time constraints, but also because it looked quite nice as a sort of indoor scarf - and Poom loved it :D

I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew with this one.

Luna Lovegood Scarf

One of the many things I put together for people for Christmas was this gorgeous crocheted scarf. I haven't crocheted for a long time, and I thought it high time that I re-learn the skill, particularly as I have Krystyna around to give me a hand when I get stuck on the whole US/English mis-translations.

It's one of the reasons that I haven't done any for a while - when I was teaching crochet to my fellow crafters at our University Craftiness Society I got entirely confused because the size of my projects never turned out right. Krystyna has since informed me that there's a completely different notation system for England compared to the US, so I'm re-reading all of my patterns carefully to see where I've been going wrong.

Anyway, Krystyna introduced me to a beautiful pattern for the Luna Lovegood scarf from Harry Potter, created by pinkleo. It's such a pretty scarf, and I thought it would be perfect for my friend Rowena, and for my Granny. I decided to make the scarf shorter than the original pattern, partly because of time constraints, and partly because my Granny prefers shorter scarves; pinkleo's pattern calls for a starting chain of 383, I used 290 for my shorter length version. In the end, I ended up making it from one 50g ball of King Cole Galaxy, which has sequins woven into the yarn for extra sparkles, and knits up as DK, with a size 4.5 hook. I used 'Mercury' since it fit so well with the original colour - though I'm considering trying it out in 'Venus' (black) or purple at some point.

It turned out to be beautifully soft - I was a little worried that the sequins might be scratchy, but they really weren't - and looked great! The pattern was easy to follow (once I'd translated it from US to UK), and one of pinkleo's friends, ariaya made up a chart for it, which was great to refer to when I got stuck. It's a pretty good pattern for beginners who are looking for a bit of a challenge. I'd very much recommend both the pattern and the yarn.

If you need a good hook size converter from US to UK or back again, try Yarn Forward's helpful guide; they also do a decent stitch converter, too.

Happy crocheting!

Spring Scarf

So, I ventured into the wool shop one day with my Mum who wanted to get a pattern and some wool to do a project with when I saw this wool. 100% Bamboo and in various shades. And so the idea of doing a scarf was born! I've never done something so simple and so quick in my life. Honest!

After about 4 days I had this. It's about 82 inches long and only 4 inches wide (when unrolled).

So what do you need? Well this!

Three 50g balls of Wendy Pure 100% Bamboo (or whatever you fancy using)
5 . 5mm knitting needles


Step 1. Start by casting on 20 stitches.

Step 2. Knit your first row.

Step 3. Knit the first two stitches, then purl until the last two stitches, knit last two stitches.

Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have the desired length! Simple!

Two and a bit balls of the Wendy's wool makes the scarf up to be 82 inches, which on my 5' 7" frame is to my belt. It also means I can wind the scarf once or twice depending on my mood. But really you could make this shorter, wider, different colours, whatever you feel like really!

I had this lilac colour wool which is Sirdar Just Bamboo already, and I've decided to do a similar thing here. With this I'm also doing a thin scarf, but becuase it is a block colour (not colour changing like the Wendy) I'm doing a 3x3 rib to gice it a bit of texture.

For this, simply cast on 21 stitches then work in a knit 3, purl 3 pattern for your first row, and purl 3, knit 3 for your second row, repeating until the desired length is required.

Just remember - whatever yarn you use, whether it's colour changing or a block colour, check that the dye lot numbers are the same!