Tardy blogging, Christmas, and more scarves

Crikey it's been almost a year since I last blogged, which is a pretty poor effort by anyone's standards. I'd like to say it's because the last year has been non-stop crazy funtimes, but in truth I think I've just been a bit slack. I have been taking photos of my makes though, so it's not all bad.

I've got a mammoth post to do about an owl and a pussycat, and a few other bits and pieces I've made, but for now I thought I'd dip my toe in the water with a post about a few scarves.

In November I found some amazing yarn in a wool shop in Folkestone which was perfect for a scarf for my eldest niece. I'm a sucker for a wool shop anywhere I go, and at this time I was meant to be getting ready for a friend's wedding (the reason I was in Folkestone), but this little shop was calling to me and had some pretty nifty and cheap wool. I got some really pretty black wool with purple glitter thread running throughout it, which was ideal for my niece as she's approaching the age where the stuff she wears has to be cool rather than pink (hooray!). I also found some stripey grey, black and white wool which I thought would be good for my nephew. I already had some popcorn yarn in bubblegum pink at home which would do nicely for a third scarf for my smallest niece.

I started crocheting the first scarf at the end of November, thinking I could easily have them ready by Christmas. I'm a bit of a terror for leaving things until the last minute and then rushing through them whilst cursing myself for being such a pillock. This is pretty much the way I approached the two dissertations at the end of my degree too, so it's good to see I still haven't learnt my lesson.

The first scarf for my eldest niece (who will be 10 this year) went nicely but took longer than expected - 2 weeks in total. I guess I didn't account for having a social life in December. I did a shells and chain pattern which I'd been wanting to try for a while.

I liked it a lot, although the wool did have a tendency to split as I hooked it. There was enough left over to put a fringe on it, which I've never done before, so that was fun to try.

Forgive the crap photos, they were taken in a bit of a hurry

Now in mid-December I got round to starting the popcorn wool scarf for my youngest niece who just turned 5. I had no experience of using this type of yarn and wasn't sure quite how it was going to work. I started off trying a tester square with double crochet. Then triple crochet. Then I pulled the wool around and around the hook frantically whilst swearing and getting irate. Then I rage tweeted about how it wasn't working and how much I hated this yarn.

Then I had the fact that you can't crochet with this type of wool explained to me by Twitter friends. 

Ooops.

I still haven't learnt to knit (it's on my to-do list I swear), so I roped in my mum to take one for the team and make this one for me. She did a pretty good job too I reckon.

The final scarf for my 8 year old nephew I started on the 23rd December. What did I say about leaving things until the last minute? I wasn't seeing the kids until Boxing Day, so I'd set myself 3 days to make it - one of them being Christmas Day, when I was planning on consuming a lot of wine.

I found a male scarf pattern on Ravelry (this was my first male specific pattern, but I knew he would freak out if it was anything flowery or frilly) and got to work. It turned out that male patterns are a lot denser than the kind I'm used to (what, men don't like holes in their scarves?!) and it was slooooooooow progress. After the first day it was about an inch wide. Unlike any other scarf pattern I'd made before, you had to crochet sideways along the length of the scarf, so for a while I thought I was going to have to present him with what looked like a karate belt.

By the time Christmas Day came around I was still crocheting it. Luckily it was a really simple pattern, so I could watch telly and drink booze and crochet all at the same time (multitasker extraordinaire). Towards the end I realised that the numbness I get in my little fingers when I crochet too much had become quite frighteningly bad and I was getting shooting pains in my finger joints. So for this Christmas I probably gave myself the gift of RSI. Hooray!

I finished it in the early evening and suddenly had the horrific realisation that it needed to be blocked, as all of the edges were curling up. I've never done blocking before either, and did possibly the most half-arsed job of blocking anyone's ever attempted; sprinkling a bit of water on it, spreading it out on the floor under the radiator, and sticking a towel and a load of heavy books on top of it. By the time it came to wrapping it on Boxing Day morning it was still a bit damp. Ooops again.

Anyway, here it is...

It has ridges in it which look nice, I forgot to mention that.

So the kids were all very happy with them and put them on immediately. I suspect that my nephew's one was still a little bit damp but he didn't say anything because he's ace and a bit oblivious to that sort of thing.


A good blogger would have probably taken photos of the kids wearing them to include at this point, but surprisingly I forgot (I'd probably had a lot of wine by that point too)...

...so instead I leave you with this

Happy er... Christmas