A Spring Scarf in Natural Wool

OK, so the spring scarf I mentioned last time? It’s finally finished. Here it is, being modelled by… well, me.

The finished article in its rightful place
The finished article in its rightful place

First things first. The materials used were:

1) a 2.5mm crochet hook, and
2) three different colours of natural, undyed wool.

The palest I bought on eBay many moons ago and no longer remember from whom. But the two darker ones are from The Knitting Gift Shop, which is owned and run by the gentleman who also owns the printing company that does all the printing for our own beard oil company, and his wife. Yes, that’s a bit convoluted. But I’m glad to know them – apart from the wonderful job they do with our printing, their wools are all locally sourced, fabulous quality and reasonably priced. And I loved working with them (and no – I’m not on commission!) πŸ™‚

So, onto the construction.

It started with the Japanese flower.

This is a free pattern and there are many blogs (mine too, now) that tell you how to make it. I saw it, made it, loved it. And then worked out how to join the motifs, and then decided on a scarf.

So this is how it works (UK terms):

Chain 6 and join into a circle with a slip stitch in the first chain.

round1: Chain 3 (counts as one double crochet) and make 11 double crochets into the ring, for 12 in total. Slip stitch into the first ‘chain 3’.

round 2: Chain 5, then into each gap in the circle, make one double crochet followed by a chain 2. You will have 12 loops all the way around. Join with a slip stitch into the first ‘chain 5’.

round 3: chain 3 (counts as one double crochet) and make three more double crochets into the first 2-chain gap. Into all the remaining 2-chain gaps, make four double crochets.

round 4: *chain 5, miss 2 double crochets and make a slip stitch into the third. Slip stitch into the next** repeat from * to ** all the way around. Slip stitch into the previous round. These loops are the beginnings of the petals.

Making the petals
Making the petals – you can see all the loops around the circle, and the first three petals of round 5 complete.

round 5: make 8 double crochets into each of the loops, with a slip stitch into the last round between each petal.

Done!

So, the next task (other than the ever-taxing weaving in of the ends) is to join them. For this, I made the next flower up to the end of the 4th round. Then I made 10 petals. For the 11th and 12th petals, I made the first four double crochets, put my hook behind the fourth or fifth double crochet of a petal on the back of the first flower, drew the yarn through it, and continued on with the next four. I repeated the process on the next petal and we have a join.

Joined at two petals.
Joined at two petals.
Joining in rows
Joining in rows

You can see the construction of the scarf very clearly in the above picture. They are all joined to at least one flower by two petals, and if you join as you go along (you can use this picture for reference) it makes the whole thing much easier than trying to figure a way to do it all afterwards.

Coming along nicely
Coming along nicely – don’t be fooled! It’s still a scarf, just folded in this picture.
I took it everywhere
I took it everywhere

It’s an incredibly portable project, too, so you can bundle it into a small bag for the car, bus, queue, waiting room… or in this case beach πŸ™‚

neutrals3
Almost finished.
Finished and blocking
Finished and blocking

Finally, the blocking. I’m not sure how useful this was really since the flowers are intrinsically quite flat and the petals designed to curl up a little. But I’ve just got these blocking mats and pins and, frankly, I still get a bit excited about using them. So I did πŸ™‚

And ta-dah! That’s it!

If you fancy giving it a go, and my explanations are a little too woolly, or assume too much knowledge, or… whatever difficulty you might stumble across, I’m more than happy to attempt a better explanation or answer any questions – just holler πŸ™‚

In other news, I have a bit of a plan for a lot more of these,

But what will it be?!
But what will it be?!

but you’ll have to watch this space πŸ˜‰

Enormous Distractions

I haven’t got any photos for you.

Not of knitting, anyway. Or crochet.

I have a multi-coloured blanket underway. And I’m customising a jumper I bought in a charity shop – hand-knitted and brand new for Β£6 –Β  a fraction of what the wool would cost.I’ve also completed a shawl/scarf/wrap, which I think is *beautiful*. And I promise pictures of them all.

But the biggest news of the summer is that our business went up the spout. Our friend and business partner jumped ship with threats and demands and it was horrible. (It’s nothing personal, you know, just business O.o )

So we started over. And if you are closely, or even vaguely, acquainted with anyone of the bearded persuasion, I urge you to take a look at our beautiful, handmade, organic, delicious oils. You can get to us one of two ways: www.beard-oil.co.uk or www.firstolympian.com

Eros Beard Oil
Eros Beard Oil

And normal, woollen service will resume as soon as the dust has settled (not to mention the small-fry settling into the new term, new schools, new nursery…) πŸ™‚

Sewing – a break from the yarn

A bit of a stray off the yarn route today:

It started with a request. Well, the request was actually made last night, but became a job for today. Allow me to explain.

My youngest son (2 1/2) has a ‘nuggie’. It started life as a cot-sized fleecy blanket, without which he would not sleep (so we bought two more, just in case in case!) It was so soft and snuggly that we called it his ‘snuggler’, which of course he could not say. So it has become a ‘nuggie’. Last night, as he was getting ready for bed, and watching his baby brother’s routine, the middle of my boys (nearly 9) was lamenting his lack of nuggie. I had a flash of inspiration. A while ago, in our local supermarket, they had a promotion and were selling fleece blankets for a song. I mean, almost literally a song. Something inconceivably crazy like Β£2 each. Being a sucker for 1) a bargain and 2) snuggliness, I couldn’t resist and bought a few, intending to give them to my boys at Christmas, with an initial stitched onto each.

I forgot.

So, when I say I had a flash of ‘inspiration’, I guess what I really mean is I had a jogged memory πŸ˜‰

I told him about them and asked if he’d like one. He was instantly enthusiastic. Which, in his case, means leaping-up-and-down-can-I-have-it-now enthusiastic. And the sound of his enthusiasm was enough to draw his oldest brother (13) away from his computer programming to see what all the fuss was about. So it wasn’t long before “Can I have one too?” was uttered. Now, since they’re all the same colour, I’m just going to have to personalise them. And since I don’t have much time today, it’s going to have to be a little ‘initial’ job…

That was my job for today. And it’s the kind of job I love because it means having to make something. Aw shucks. I’ve just got to make these, because they’ll make the boys happy. They’ve asked me to. A chance to indulge myself with playing, and make them happy at the same time. Win, win πŸ™‚

I’m from the ‘raw edge’ school of applique; not just because of time constraints, but also because I like the almost instantly aged, loved and lived-in look of it. So that made today’s task even easier. I know I’ve mentioned, on my about page, my mother-in-law‘s incredibly generous gift of two large sacks of yarn, but I haven’t yet mentioned that the last time she visited, she brought a fair bit of fabric with her, too. So the patches you see are made with some of that beautiful material. Once finished, I deposited each on its corresponding bed and got on with the rest of my day.

Initials cut out, ready for patches
Initials cut out, ready for patches
patches2
Initials sewn to patches
Patches sewn to nuggies.
Patches sewn to nuggies.

Which was rather taken up with Beard Oil – we’ve had a bit of a run on since we introduced the sample bottles. Busy busy, mustn’t grumble! (or Mustard Crumble as we have, probably rather irritatingly, started to say) πŸ˜‰

And then I returned from posting the orders to find my sons home from school, new blankets tied around their necks, superheroes all.

*chortle*

A hit, then.

I’m still plugging away with little Alice’s jacket on which, hopefully, I’ll have some progress to show soon.

For now, though – the holidays are here! No more school for 2 weeks. I love the holidays πŸ™‚