This is a photo of my next crochet project… Or at least what i want the next project to look like! But unfortunately it turns out the pattern is written incorrectly! The first time i followed the pattern i discovered that each row increased dramatically in length resulting in a very frilly effect… Not what i was after! So i unravelled it back to the end of the first proper row and changed the pattern to what i thought it should be!
Second time around i realised that in doubling the length of the chain to make the scarf wider i hadn’t taken into account the mathematical aspect of the pattern. Needing a chain that was a multiple of 7 with 5 added wasn’t going to work by doubling 33 to 66. Unravelling number 2, this time back to the chain!
This time i started with my chain of 61 and thought things would work better but several rows in i ended up with this
It looks pretty but it’s not what I’m aiming for. I might have carried on with it if the edges were going straight, but they were definitely not!
So now, once again, my crochet looks like this
I’m not sure if i need to go back to the chain yet. I’m also not sure whether to just use some scrappy wool and start with a chain of 33 to work out what to do, or try working it out on paper with a crochet pattern. I certainly don’t want to unravel this wool again… Each time it’s getting fluffier.
Anyway, the interesting thing about this is that I’m crocheting it as a prayer scarf. I came across the idea in debbie macomber’s book ‘back on blossom street’, part of a series of fictional books set around a wool shop in America. The idea is that you crochet a shawl and pray for the person you’re making it for as you do it. I decided to crochet the scarf for someone whose life is not currently following the plan she had for it , and she’s trying to work out what to do next. I realised in the work I’ve done on this how frustrating and disheartening it is when things don’t work out how you think or hope they will, especially when you’ve done things the way they were ‘supposed’ to be done. The sense of frustration is huge, and I’m only dealing with it over a short period of time. But it takes time to change plans and see if they’ll turn out better. The experience has fed into my prayers for her, as she works out whether to keep going with things as they are, or ‘unravel’ and start again. I’m praying for her perseverance, as well as an ability to deal with the frustration she must feel.
And then, in writing my blog post i tried to put a photo on, and it did the highly annoying thing of wiping my whole post so i had to start all over again. But i persevered and here’s the post! I’ll keep you updated on how the scarf progresses. I really want to figure out the correct pattern so i can contact the people who published it and let them know how to fix it…and so that the scarf looks like i want it to!
Julia's Creative Year 