Tag Archives: alpaca yarn

A White Scarf and a Cold

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So, I have finally caught the cough/cold that has run rather rampant through my family. I think I was getting a little cocky when I didn’t get it over Christmas (when they all had it) and thought I was home free. So, other than an empty box of tissues, I haven’t made anything today. I thought I would take a couple of photos of my current project though.

It is an inside scarf. I have a VERY cold office and decided that I needed a scarf that I could wrap around myself. It is about 7″ wide and I haven’t yet decided how long it will be (I have 5 skeins, so who knows). The yarn is 100% alpaca and is just amazing. I mentioned the yarn in a previous post and at the time, I had planned to make a lace shrug out of it. A little ambitious for me, but a lace scarf is right on track. I haven’t done any real complicated crochet stitches, so this is a first for me.

WhiteScarf WhiteScarf2

The scarf is started with a double crochet foundation stitch and is then the Arch 11 pattern from a wonderful crochet pattern book I picked up at Half Price Books, Super Stitches Crochet by Jennifer Campbell and Ann-Marie Bakewell. I really like their book, the patterns are very easy to understand and for once, I understand the crochet symbols.

So, I have at least made progress on a project, and now back to bed.

Happy Creating and Stay Well!

Kristin

Crocheted earmuffs in cream and black wool yarn.

Crafty Challenge 12: Headwarmer – Earmuffs

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Crocheted earmuffs in cream and black wool yarn.

Our most recent crafty challenge was to make a headwarmer. This could be in any color, material, style or shape. Cheri was ahead of us all and posted her adorable recycled sweater hat here. We gave ourselves 3 weeks to make this particular challenge as we were all still recovering from the holidays. I had mine done in less than a week and then had to try very had not to talk about it or brag about it. Of course, this early birdness of me is now completely offset by my late posting.

I love earmuffs, but have never been able to find a satisfactory pair. The never stay on my head or they don’t cover my ears very well. I also hate hats as I have very static prone hair. I knew as soon as we started talking about a headwarmer challenge that earmuffs were my challenge.

I bought a cheap set of fleece wrap-around earmuffs for less than $2. I then cut the fleece off the wire and used the wire for the base of my earmuffs. I have some lovely wool yarn, one skein in cream and another in black. I also received this gigantic spool of very fine black alpaca yarn on year for Christmas. I took all three yarns and crocheted my earmuffs with this lovely and warm combination.

Crocheted earmuffs made on wire frame.

I crocheted 4 circles in double crochet, all the same size and just big enough to cover my ears. I then held two of these circles on either side of the ear part of the wire frame and using half-double crochet, I stitched the circles together. I really wanted the double thickness which provides amazing protection from cold and wind. You could also put some stuffing or quilting in between the two circles if you wanted poofy earmuffs (this would be very cute for a child).

After stitching both circles on the frame, I then single crocheted around the length of wire between the ear pieces. To keep from having to weave-in ends, I folded the ends from the ear pieces under the single crochet. This made the back wire a little thicker and made it so I only had the ends from this last stretch to weave-in.

Crocheted earmuffs in black and cream wool yarn.

This completed my earmuffs. This project took me all of about 2 hours and most of that was just figuring out what stitch I wanted to use to make the circles. I have been wearing these for weeks now and just love them. They are comfortable, very warm, and I haven’t had cold ears at all this year!

Happy Crafting!

Kristin