Black & White Checkered Scarf

Another project for this Christmas. A Black & White checkered scarf. Well, okay, so it's actually charcoal gray & white, but who's keeping track? LOL! That's what I had available, and I always try to use up some of my stash if I can (before it gets too big.)

Checkered Scarf

I made this as a Christmas gift for my older son's girlfriend and it was the first time I had tried the checkered design. A friend on a crochet Yahoo group pointed me to THIS pattern (actually for a dog sweater), and I used only the part of the instructions that made the checkerboard pattern and adapted it to make my scarf. I made each color 3 sc, and did that for 3 rows before alternating the colors. Then I edged the whole thing in the gray. By the way, if you try this, your yarn may twist up a lot so you will have to stop periodically and untwist it. I haven't yet mastered the art of keeping my yarns straight. LOL

My left hand cramped up something awful doing this one! I think I was tensing my hand up too much trying to hold both the yarn I was actually crocheting with and also the yarn of the alternate color that I was crocheting over top of. I used Lion Brand Homespun yarn, which is very soft and has this cool looking bumpiness to it, but which makes it really hard to see my stitches. So that, I guess, added to my cramped hand problem. But, all in all it came out pretty good I think. About 3/4 of the way through the scarf I was getting the hang of it and was able to relax my hand a little, but even now that it's done, my hand still gives me fits now and then. Aspercreme to the rescue! LOL! (I've been told that Tiger Balm works better, but I like the 'no odor' thing. LOL)

I also received some great tips from a YouTube crochet friend, Mikeyssmail about proper posture and positioning of your body in the chair when crocheting to ease tension. Thanks Michael! :O)

Merry Christmas all!