Thursday, March 09, 2006

As Requested, My Crocheted Ruffle Scarf Pattern

Okay, here's how I made my crocheted ruffle scarf (below). I'm sure there are several ways you can do this, but this is how I did it.

Choose a mohair or mohair blend yarn -- actually anything sort of fuzzy will work. My pink scarf is made from Lion Brand Jiffy, but I've also made them from Red Heart Symphony and Caron Simply Soft worsted weight acrylic yarn. As you can tell, I'm definitely NOT a yarn snob, although I do love the "good stuff" as well.

Choose a large crochet hook. Usually a size L, M, or even N is best (depending on your yarn). You basically are going for a "fluffy" look so you don't want to crochet it too tightly. Err on the side of too large as opposed to too small if you're not sure. The size crochet hook you choose will more than likely be significantly larger than the "suggested hook size" on the yarn label for this particular pattern.

Depending on how long you want your scarf, chain around 150 to 180 stitches. 150 stitches will still yield a nice long scarf, so unless you want a really long scarf, go for 150.

Row 1: 2DC in 4th chain from hook and 2DC in each chain across. Chain 3 and turn.
Row 2: 2DC is each stitch across.
Continue until scarf is desired width. Bind off.

That's it! For my pink scarf, I only needed two rows!

Here's a variation for you. This is a two-tone scarf I made for my daughter in her school colors.

It's made from Caron Simply Soft on the green side and Lion Brand Wool-Ease Worsted on the gold side. I had to mix the yarns since Lion didn't have the right shade of green in their worsted weight and since Caron didn't make the right shade of gold! Hey, improvise, right??? Anyway, the gauges were similar enough that it worked out just fine.

Choose one of your colors (it doesn't matter which one) and follow the directions for the scarf as outlined above. On this particular scarf (since the yarn wasn't very fluffy), I had to crochet 3 rows instead of two to get the desired width. And I think I used a size L crochet hook. Once you finish one side of the scarf, bind off. Then take your second color of yarn and on the other side of the original chain (of 150 stitches) do the same thing all over again (2DC in each chain across, etc. until desired width). Your scarf will spiral on its own in the alternating colors. Kinda cool, huh? Oh, and dig the matching crocheted Panta she's wearing too. Too bad it hasn't gotten below 70 degrees here this winter :-(

Tip: Keep in mind that making a two-tone spiral scarf takes twice as long to make a single colored one, and that adding a third row to your width will take 4 times as long as your first row did. For instance, if you chained 150 to begin with, then you will have 300 stitches at the end of your first row. By the end of row 2, you will be up to 600 stitches. And by the end of row 3 you will have 1200 stitches! This can make a big difference if you're making a two-toned scarf.

Questions? Email me.

2 comments:

Brewer said...

found your podcast thru craftster and gave it a listen today. Love it! I'll be keeping my ears open for more :)
--Weaver (chipper on craftster)

Louisa said...

There's a slightly different pattern for a crocheted ruffle scarf at free online at http://www.caron.com/projects/bliss/B5_ruffle_scarf.html

I made one out of my handspun yarn but since it was thinner yarn, I used a smaller hook and started with a longer chain. Turned out great!

Love your podcast! I'm just re-discovering crochet and like you I'm much faster at crochet than knitting.