It took me a year, but I finally tore apart the closet to find my, untouched, beginner's crochet book and set of hooks, both gifts from last year's Christmas (compliments of my new Rans family).
What spurred on this new decision, you might ask. Well, you see, I've been wanting an infinity scarf for a while now, but buying one for $20 never felt worth it, as it rarely gets cold here on the central coast of California. I figured if I got past the discomfort of learning something new, I could have that scarf for under $5 if I just bit the bullet and learned to crochet.
After scouring Pinterest for an easy, and free, pattern, I ended up on ravelry.com (my mother-in-law's go-to crochet site) with a pattern titled the "Easiest Ever Infinity Scarf" – how could I pass that up?
Unfortunately, I found two problems right off the bat. I had never followed a crochet pattern before and I didn't have a 19 mm hook. Would that stop Natalie? No way! On the upside, I did have the correct yarn, in a lovely mustard shade, and that seemed most important to me.
I grabbed the largest hook I had (11.5 mm) and pretended I knew what all the terms meant. I was relieved to discover that the pattern was pretty darn easy. I went on crocheting until the yarn found it's end. I stretched the length of scarf out in front of me. It looked kind of short. I placed the ends together. Now it looked really short. I shrugged my shoulders and figured it was probably due to having the wrong hook size. It didn't look too bad though, so I continued on.
I wasn't quite sure how to connect the ends – what in the heck is a slip stitch!? Good ol' YouTube came in handy there. I winged it and except for the loose ends, which needed to be weaved in with a crochet needle, (which I didn't have), I felt fairly good about the end result – but I mean, how could I have gone too wrong with that lovely mustard color wrapped around my neck.
Funny thing is, I realized a few days later that I had no idea what the difference between a single crochet and double crochet was and had double crocheted instead of single crocheted the whole way round. Somehow, it turned out fine. I'll definitely laugh about it one day when I'm a pro, crocheting blankets and sweaters and what not.
Oh, yes, and I forgot to say, that I found out later on that this one-looped scarf is usually referred to as a cowl. The infinity scarf is longer and can be doubled or tripled around your neck. Therefore, I made a cowl.
(If you'd like to read more on that matter, go here.)
And keep scrolling to find this pattern.
Also, I cut my hair!