Gift Crafting for 2014

I usually do more makeing for Christmas than I did this year, but I still did get some in. Mostly scarves this year. In previous years, I've knitted several. This year, I started to knit, and then, I pulled it out and chose the crochet hook instead. I picked out a rather large one, so the stitching would go quickly.

The first scarf I made (and then remade as it was too wide and not long enough) was an old standby pattern. I switched it up by alternating where the pattern started and stopped, and got kind of an argyle effect, which I liked.

Merry Christmas Carl!

The next scarf was for my neice, and I picked out a varigated - self striping - yarn. I didn't want to do a bunch of single crochet I get too bored, but I also didn't want a crochet pattern to fight with the yarn. Then I thought about a texture stitch, but didn't know what to do for that. Simple solution. I looked in a book of stitches for all kinds of needlework, and found several texture stitches. They were easy and quick, and I don't know why I hadn't thought of doing that some time before now. For this scarf, I alternated single and half double crochet, and then on the return row did a single where the half double was, and vice versa. Easy peasy.

Merry Christmas, Shelbi!

I was pretty happy about how the striping turned out on the scarf, and was very pleased with this yarn. I also liked what the texture stitch added to the scarf. I hope she likes it, too!

The other scarf I made was for my long-time friend, and I didn't get a picture taken of it. It, too was a texture stitch, a basketweave kind of thing. The pattern was to alternate single crochet and chain one stitches, then on the return, single crochet in the gap made by the chain and the chain over the single crochet from the row before. It also gave a nice texture, and didn't seem hole-y, which I had wondered about before I started.

I was doubley pleased with my crochet for the season, since I got to make some gifts, and learn something, too! I will definitely be consulting my book of stitches again, and trying out some different patterns soon!