Scarves

My first few attempts at crochet were scarves. The idea was that I had run out of student loan money and needed to give meaningful gifts to my family for Christmas. So they got handmade scarves. Bless them, they accepted them graciously enough, but I don't really blame them for not wearing them. Ever. Well, I did see my step dad wearing his blue and white scarf a couple of times. . . .

I was really proud of my mom's red and white and my sister's pink and gray scarves simply because I had just learned how to crochet in stripes. I had not learned yet how to end a stripe smoothly, but that came with time. They both only got one stripe on each end because I was in a hurry and did not know about the time saving tapestry needles.

Scarves were a great start for me. What you see in the picture were simple double crochet stitches. I found that it took less time to use double crochet because they were bigger stitches and got me a lot further in less the time.

This green scarf was completed for my sister's birthday, which was less than a month after Christmas.
The basket weave pattern was simple enough. I got the idea for it from a book, but of course there are plenty of video examples like the one I linked above online. The site I've linked you to is super beginner stuff, so just in case you don't know anything, she will show you how to start from a chain.

I really liked the look of this pattern, but decided to stop about five inches in just because (as the lady will tell you on those videos) it takes up a lot of yarn and a lot of time. I did the mid section with a new stitch I really liked called the half double crochet, or hdc. I liked this stitch because it's somewhere between a single and a double crochet and I just liked the way it looked. I ended up alternating rows between hdc and sc (single crochet). I think it turned out nicely.

As you can see from the photo, I still hadn't gotten a grasp on when to finish a row and when to turn. You can see it in the way the beginning hdc row seems to lean out over the basket weave rows. My frustration with ending rows prompted me on to my next step in my crochet journey, crocheting in the round.