One thing I like about sewing is being inspired by others.  At American Sewing Guild meetings we have what we call Show N Tell, where members bring in things they have been sewing.  At my last meeting one of the members brought in a beautiful ruffled scarf that she had crocheted.

It really inspired me and I do not even know how to crochet, I thought, I can do this. ( Now my mom has done some incredible crocheted masterpieces that I will share some other time. They need to be in a museum )

There is a video by Maggie Weldon called Crocheted Ruffled Scarf on You Tube that shows you step by step how to make this scarf. It is very informative and she gives some great tips, especially for someone that doesn’t even know how to crochet.

The yarn is a ribbon type lace, and it has holes at the the top and a finished decorative edge at the bottom. All you have to do is go through the holes at the top, and loop them.  There are several manufactures of this yarn, Starbella is what is used on the You Tube video, I couldn’t find it so I used Red Heart Boutique Sashay that I found at JoAnn’s Fabric.  What I did notice is that the different brands have different size holes.  I chose the one with the smallest holes, because I liked the look, but the bigger holes would probably be the easiest to work with.

These pictures show the yarn in the ball.  The center picture is as the yarn comes off the ball. The picture on the right is the yarn when it is partially stretched out. In this same picture, the decorative edge on the left side of the yarn is considered the bottom, the top is on the right and this is what you will be looping.

Not knowing how to crochet I made mistakes, but I learned from my mistakes.  One main thing I did wrong, I dropped the whole thing and it completely unravelled.  I laughed and knowing I had to start over I took this as an opportunity to try it a different way.

I went through my mother’s old crochet needles and picked a smaller one, it felt better in my hand.  I also took the time to unroll the whole skein, I opened and stretched out the “lace” while rolling it onto a pvc pipe.  You could also use a tube from paper towels if you don’t have any pvc pipe laying around.  The pipe was slippery so the yarn slipped as I began to roll it onto the pipe, to stop this you could use a little piece of painters tape and tape down the first end.

Other things I learned:

Be consistent taking your needle from front to back.  Since I don’t know how to crochet, I don’t know if this is standard knowledge or not.  It just made since to me and worked for my scarf.

I looped 10 holes instead of 8 and it did make it fuller. (See the video to understand this)

Be careful when pulling your loops over the last loop that you don’t drop the stitch because it will unravel.  I found with this thread being different colors that it was easier to keep track of which loop was which, because I would make a mental note of what color the last loop was.

As I was crocheting, sometimes I would loose grip and drop a stitch, I would pick back up where I thought was correct, only to find after crocheting several more sections I would look down and see that my scarf had fallen apart.

To pick back up correctly you need to find the loop that is holding all the other loops together.

The scarf is light and airy.

Can be worn for casual or dressy.

There are many different ways to wear this fun scarf, including wearing it as a sash around your waist, or as a head dress.If you are daring and have a special occasion you could even sew it on a deep plunging neckline as trim.

This scarf was fun to make and I plan on making more. They would be great for a Girl Scout project or for a Mother / Daughter / Son fun time. Have fun!