WHERE ON EARTH DOES THE TIME GO?? 10 April 2022

THE EVOLUTION OF A SCARF

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Where DOES the time go????  I was genuinely shocked to see the date of my previous post!

I had in fact been thinking for a while that I should wrap up this blog and consider it done with... but... somehow... I still have ideas - albeit slow ones...

As you may know, I am an avid watcher of videos/vlogs on YouTube, especially those relating to crochet. However, the majority of patterns out there are either advertised as 'easy' this or that, 'beginner-friendly' and so-on. Well, as someone who has been crotchetting solidly for the past two years (ie: since the arrival of Covid), I hardly consider myself a beginner anymore!! So, in the hunt for more interesting and challenging patterns I have found myself dipping a toe into the very murky waters of Pinterest. I've had an account for quite some years now, but rarely made use of it. I now realise that when someone says they've worked out a new pattern for us viewers, it often means they've been surfing Pinterest for ideas to adapt - I've seen the evidence! I hasten to add, this is not a criticism - see below. Thus the subject of this post.

There are many ideas out there - some excellent, some extraordinarily mundane, or tacky, or just plain weird - and a huge collection of older patterns, mainly for lace: borders for net curtains or mantle-pieces, lace doilies, table runners and so-on. It doesn't take much imagination (in my view) to see such a pattern and think "well, if I were to mirror that and add a bit in the middle to connect, mumble mumble, I would have the beginnings of a scarf" 

At the same time, in the back of my mind I was thinking about modular patterns that were NOT the dire, conventional Granny square. In the end, I landed on this image which, whilst only double crochet stitches, was quite complex to think through. 

I must say, I do take my hat off to crochet designers - there is a HUGE amount of time involved, making and un-making, drawing, erasing, re-drawing,  between the initial idea and having a working 'final'. The first stage - for me, at least - is to draw out the pattern, unless the original is particularly clear (they often aren't). I find the act of drawing generally helps me think through how it's going to work (or not...). With this pattern I also wanted to think about simplifying it a bit, starting from the middle and working outwards. This would really only work for a modular pattern that was going to be made up in individual units, to be later joined up as one. The base idea with this one was that I could make a whole series of these oblongs and stack them one above the other to form a scarf with wavy edges...

(Author's Note: WHY has this para decided it wants to be justified centrally??? Urghhh...)

An initial swatch showed that a) the solid double crochets made everything rather heavy and that b) the curves at the edges would need the odd extra 'support' to stop them sagging out of place. Then, as work continued, I realised that, whilst having a central panel in filet (built-in holes) was very nice, it really did make the side curves seem terribly heavy in comparison. Anyway, I finished that swatch and blocked it - and at THAT point, suddenly realised that the central panel, with no curved sides, made a most attractive pattern for a scarf (non-modular, at that). My enthusiasm made me make a couple of small samples, which looked a little dissappointing... until I realised that I had left out the 'open' tracks. 

So, although I have not yet found quite what I am looking for, what I HAVE found is most intriguing and will definitely make a lovely pattern in its own right...

The search will continue though ;-)

There is so much drawing - and re-drawing - and re-re-drawing and re-re-re-re-re...... in all of this, that I have actually tried looking at crochet design software [:-(   For a start, there do not seem to be many packages out there - AND they look rather complicated, the free one/s at least and I'm not sure I'm quite ready to dive in feet first into a proper 'paid' package.  There's more than a passing resemblance to music writing software where you have to laboriously pick each note type, place it on the stave etc etc, which is decidedly laborious. I'm sure there IS information out there, but I'm not tracking it down easily! and, ok, I'm probably not looking hard enough...! 

I promise the next post will happen in less than 4.5 months!!!!!