Ta-daa! Unveiling the Twirly Whirly Scarf!

I've finished off two crochet projects in the last coupla weeks - the Babette blanket from my previous post and yesterday I finally completed a Twirly Wirly Scarf that I started on Christmas Eve last year.

The pattern I used calls for three rows but the wool I used was so thick that I felt two rows would be enough.  And, in fact, a 200 stitch foundation row is quite a lot - I reckon 150 would be plenty, but there's not denying that what I've ended up with is something pretty dramatic!

Sara at Tangled Happy (a really lovely blog dedicated to crochet patterns) posted about the pattern which she found at Maize Hutton's site and, as they both say, it's simplicity itself to make - start with a foundation chain of 200 stitches then just go back and do 2 treble crochet stitches into each of the foundation chain stitches till you reach the beginning, then repeat, doing 2 treble crochet stitches into each stitch of the previous row.  That's it.  Nothing else.  Because you are increasing the stitch count, the twirls happen automatically.

Of course, I've finished this at the wrong time of year - spring is most definitely springing around these parts - so I'll have to wait until next winter before I can really show it off.  But I'm very pleased with how it's come out.

I did end up using far more wool than I was expecting - not least because I used a really, REALLY chunky wool.  I used 5-and-a-bit balls of Sirdar Indie in colourway number 150 Apache:

This costs between £3.30 and £3.80 (depending on where you get it) per 50g ball.  I paid £3.70 so total wool cost was £22.20.

I used a 10mm crochet hook, which is a big fecker:

So that's all my current crochet projects out of the way for the moment although I'm intending at some point to have a go at some Amigurumi which is, according to Wikipedia, the Japanese art of crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures.  Now, there's no way on God's green earth that I can be accused of being a stuffed animal sort of person.  Wasn't when I was nipper and I'm not now.  But when you discover that modern Amigurumi include the cutest little Nosferatu figures, how could I possibly resist?

Or how about these adorable Amigurumi monsters:

Or Satan and the Grim Reaper:

Or even the famous Pea Soup scene from The Exorcist:

 

These are most definitely my kind of stuffed toys!

But - no - I've promised myself that I have to get to grips with knitting next.  I've been having a go this week and it's slowly getting easier.  So far I can cast on, knit, purl and cast off.  Seems the next thing to do is have a go at knitting the easiest thing on the planet and something all beginners start with - sigh - a scarf.  I know, I know.  I have enough scarves in my possession to start my own lynching mob, not just made by me but as presents from people.  Rather sadly it seems I've turned into the sort of person that other people give scarves to as Christmas and/or birthday presents.  And gloves.  I get given lots of gloves.  And I do have to say that they're all lovely, really they are - leopardskin velour, candy pink suede, peacock blue leather gloves, scarves in hot pink or purple lurex - but I have enough of them now.  Something else would be nice.

But, yeah, I'm about to start knitting another bloody scarf, just so I can get used to tension and changing wool colours and stuff like that.  I have to keep telling myself that it's not that difficult - if hundreds of thousands of people all over the world have been able to do it for hundreds of years, then there's no earthly reason why I can't do it either. 

Hmmm.  We'll see.