a 'woolly & warm & tres long' scarf recipe ...

recently when i came across my thrifted coat upon the racks of despair i knew i wished to make her feel welcome in my world by making her a scarf. 

not just any scarf but a 'woolly & warm & tres long' one 

one which i may wear a multitude of ways depending on the weather and the days.

if you too would like to make a 'warm & woolly & tres long' scarf then here is my recipe

nitty gritty:

* my scarf is made with quince & co worsted weight yarn, Owl and Owl Tweet which is 50% american wool 50% american alpaca, found at Tolt Yarn and Wool 

* i used 5 skeins (1 x sooty, 1 x abyssinian, 1 x canyon, 2 x nuuk) and each skein had 120 yds/110ms on it. so all together you will need approximately 600 yds of yarn if you are wishing to make your scarf not only woolly and warm but tres long

* the scarf is colour blocked and i choose to use 2 skeins of one colour to create a large block of colour. you can choose to do whatever pleases your colour blocking heart :)

* you can use any yarn but i would consider using one with some drape to it

* this scarf is crocheted in a slanted shell stitch hence it creates a fabric that stretches on the bias, yet the chains along the edge do not stretch. therefore i suggest you do not do your edge chains too tight. washing and gently laying flat to dry, being careful not to flatten the stitch pattern will make all the difference

* finished measurement of scarf is 5.75"/14.5cm x 92"/234cm after washing

* you can wear this scarf long, you can wear it wrapped around a multitude of times or you can wear it folded in half and then looped at the front of your neck.

* the stitch pattern is #174 in the brilliant book The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs by Linda P. Schapper (a musty must for any crochet lover)

* all crochet is written in US terminology

ingredients:

a Mr Hook size 5.0mm

approximately 600 yds of worsted weight yarn

pattern:

row 1: (single crochet, chain 2, 4 double crochet) in 2nd chain from hook, *skip next 3 chain, (single crochet, chain 2, 4 double crochet) in next chain; repeat from * across to within last 4 chain, skip next 3 chain, single crochet in last chain, turn.

row 2: chain 3 (counts as double crochet), 2 double crochet in first single crochet, *skip next 4 double crochet, (single crochet, chain 2, 4 double crochet) in next chain-2 space; repeat from * across to within last chain-2 space, single crochet in last chain-2 space, turn.

recipe:

1. take your first skein of colour and make a chain of 24 plus 2

2. crochet row 1 of pattern above

3. crochet row 2 of pattern above

4. continue repeating row 2 of pattern above

5. when your skein comes to an end, join the next colour at the begining of a row and continue upon your merry way repeating row 2 of pattern as you go and changing skeins as they run out

6. when you are all out of yarn, finish off and weave in all your ends. wash gently and lay to dry flat but try not to flatten out the stitches.

and voila! 

a 'woolly and warm and tres long' scarf is yours!

please feel free to add your scarf to Ravelry if you are on there. 

you can find me under dottieangelLTD if you like.

my thrifted winter coats ...

i am all set for chilly days thanks to my pile of thrifted woolly friends and two rather nice other finds. 

one is a coat and one is a jacket and both are wool.

the coat is perfectly disheveled and i am liking very muchly how it fits a little sack like. i am muchly liking the lining and the rather tweedy pretty fabric. 

even the buttons made me happy. my coat is not an old coat as such, perhaps only a few years as the label says GAP but i like how someone else broke it in for me and now it looks perfectly disheveled in every way. i loved my new to me coat so muchly so, i wished her to know just how much i did, thus i made her a scarf. 

i will share my scarf and how i made it, tomorrow if i maybe so bold

the jacket i am thinking is older, the fabric and the lining has that older feel about it, but i could be wrong, i do not know the maker on the label and when i looked it up it pointed to leather companies. she is quite simple and i am thinking perhaps once upon a time she had a skirt to match. 

as she did not have a skirt, i gave her a pocket so she may get over her loss. 

i found a knitted pocket lurking upon a scarf i had made donkeys years ago, i re-purposed my pocket and with a medal and a granny brooch 

(of which i will be selling at the holiday makers market coming up)

 i am thinking she is perfectly suited to layering over my already many layers i wear. she has a few creases where i believe she lay in storage for a time, i am wondering if these will drop out with wear or not. i wonder why i wonder about these things. i am thinking this sweetie may need a knitted something or other just around the neck under the collar to tuck into the chest area on days when the wind is a little blustery. 

altogether my two new wool coats cost a total of $34 which i think is tres jolly good when you see what new wool coats are going for in the stores.

home ...

this jesus had a bit of a ding when he found me. on the $8 price sticker it said "he was broken for us". i liked that so muchly i kept the tag on 

the blue lady who flew across the pond after Our #1 found her at a carboot sale, has now find a fine place to hang out in until Our #1's nomading days come to an end

forsaken souls are tres good at huddling together as the days get a bit more nippy 

has been a year and half since our little bathroom was wood-paneled and the itty bitty shelves added, and i still think they are the best thing we ever did to mossy shed

my hand of fatima reminds me each morn when i rise of the magical Marrakesh travels i took

a handy dandy basket holding my winter scarves most spiffily

my girls, many many moons ago

  

a book collection surely is never finished

if i could, i would go back to Baja in a heart beat

but then again, there's no place like home ...