Three shades of Grey Lacy Crochet Scarf

This is the last scarf that I have planned for the time being as I will be returning to doing some spinning, as the next Fibre Advent Calendar will be arriving next week in readiness for opening throughout December.  I am using some Stylecraft Special DK in three shades of grey that I have had since last 2011, 13 years!  All yarns are 100% Acrylic and will be held double.

1063 - Graphite for the centre

1203 - Silver for the stripe

1099 - Grey for the outer parts

Peach and Watermelon Lacy Crochet Scarf

I have once again been stash diving deep into the past and come out with the left overs of a huge ball of Peach double knit acrylic yarn that I remember buying either just before or just after my first child was born and the little shopping precinct I got it from was demolished a few years ago.  The yarn is at least 20 years old and not such a bright peach as the previous one, this one is a bit warmer in tone and I have paired it with the Stylecraft Special Aran in shade Watermelon that I bought on my return from Blackpool.  

Having not enough of the Peach to complete the three rows either side of the stripe, I decided to work the last row in the Watermelon too to give a whole new effect.  Both yarns are 100% acrylic.

Peach and Cream Lacy Crochet Scarf

I have dug deep into my yarn stash and pulled out something that is potentially vintage that I got off Ebay years ago.  Its called Foxy DK by Charles Fox.  I am pairing this with the new Stylecraft Special Aran in shade cream that I bought last week.  I have to use the Foxy DK held double and the Aran as it is and because I won't have the meterage that I need for the main colour from the Peach, this will be the stripe on the mainly cream scarf.  

This scarf used 69g of the 104g of Peach and 105g of the cream Aran. Both yarns are 100% Acrylic.

Aspen, Cream and Aqua Lacy Crochet Scarf

My original plan was to make a scarf using Nil and Cream but given the fact that the last scarf used up some of the second ball of Nil this is no longer an option so Plan B is to use what I have of the Nil, add some cream and also use some of the left over Aspen as well. 

So the yarns used in this one are King Cold Big Value Baby 4ply in shade Nil, worked using 2 strands.

Stylecraft Special Aran in shade Aspen, worked just as it comes.

Stylecraft Special Aran in shade Cream, worked just as it comes

I decided to use the darkest yarn in the centre, flanked by cream and finished off with the Nil.  I done it this way as it takes up less of the cream so that I can then use the left overs in conjunction with the second ball of cream on the next scarf and also it uses up as much of the Nil as possible.

I used the Nil held double and used 81g of the 90g that I had left, 50g of cream and 23g of Aspen and they are all 100% Acrylic.

It is only when I took the scarf outside into proper daylight, if you can call November in the Northern Hemisphere "proper daylight", that it became apparent that the pale blue-green aqua kind of colour yarn in the house is actually leaning more towards pale blue and away from any kind of green tinge. Whoopsy! Silly school girl error and I've been doing this far too long to have made such a silly error as checking colour combinations in natural night.  Still makes an interesting scarf, just not quite as I had expected.

Aqua and Aspen Lacy Crochet Scarf

For the next scarf I have picked out two more balls of King Cole Big Value Baby 4ply but this time it is in shade Nil, which is a pale blue-green aqua colour and this was bought at the same time as the lilac that I've already used to make scarves and was bought new from our local craft shop 7 years ago.  This yarn has had to be worked holding two strands at the same time.

100% Acrylic

The other yarn is Stylecraft Special Aran in shade Aspen, also 100% Acrylic, which I bought on my last visit to the same local craft shop and is thick enough to be worked as it is.  

100% Acrylic

I ended up using more than one ball of the Nil, it took 10g of the second ball that I had of this which means I now have to figure out something different for the next scarf as I no longer have enough left in the remaining ball.  This is strange because the other two balls of this yarn in the lilac made one scarf each.

Sparkly Teal and Sparkly White Lacy Crochet Scarf

Following my unsuccessful yarn shopping whilst in Blackpool myself and my two kids have been shopping at our local craft shop again.  It would have been nice to see what different yarns the other shops stocked but hey-ho, for now at least.  I have bought us tickets for a big yarn and wool event that is being held locally in December that has something like 85 different vendors but right now I need a few balls of yarns that will work with some of things that I have pulled out of my yarn stash so I have shopped locally. I only bought 5 balls of yarn, and two of those are the same colour!  My youngest bought a few balls and my eldest bought a big bag full.

97% Acrylic, 3% Polyester

My next scarf is made using the same 12 year old King Cole Haze Glitter in Teal as the last scarf but this time I have pair it with something new that I have just bought which is King Cole Baby Glitz in white, which is shade 483 and on the ball band this states "Dinamo White" but on both Ravelry and on the actual King Cole website 483 is Diamond White.  Most of the same letters but not in the same order.  Odd!

97% Acrylic, 3% Polyester

To make this scarf I have had to work both yarns with 2 strands and because they both have the exact same fibre content there is no change to that this time.

Sparkly Teal and Storm Lacy Crochet Scarf

Diving down into my yarn stash again and surfaced with some King Cole Haze Glitter in shade 124 - Teal that has been in my stash for just over 12 years since I bought it new from a local yarn shop that opened but didn't survive very long, maybe 12 months at best.  It was poorly located but the main problem was the woman that had decided to open a yarn shop upon retiring from her main job at the age of 65.  She was neurotic, watched customers like a hawk with a look of disdain on her face as if everyone was out to pinch stuff and made everyone feel uncomfortable when she glared at them.  I only went in that one time and tried to strike up a friendly conversation/chit-chat only to be met with a tongue that could skin a man alive at 50 paces. 

Anyway, let's get back to the yarn itself.  King Cole Haze Glitter has been discontinued for a number of years now.  It is in the double knit category and yet is 100g/466m (double knit is usually around 100g/300m, give or take).  I had two balls of this yarn and it had to be worked holding two strands together for this design.

97% Acrylic, 3% Polyester

I'm pairing this yarn with the 57g of left overs of the Stylecraft Special Aran in Storm Blue that I had bought specifically to got with the Jarol Rambler Aran that I had used to make the first scarf in this design.  As this yarn is thicker, I only had to use a single strand.

100% Acrylic

The sparkly thread on the Haze is loosely wound around the plied yarn and has a tendency to pucker-up the yarn so I had to keep pulling it out straight and then other times the sparkly thread would just break, which relieved the puckering.  I've never had this happen before, ever, and it's not as though I had any kind of tight tension on the yarn or anything that would cause the thread to be pushed along the surface of the yarn in any way, shape or form

I made a start on this and then we had a couple of days mid-week break in Blackpool to see the illuminations and do a bit of shopping but unfortunately the one yarn shop I had intended to visit was closed due to her being on holiday and the market wasn't open on the days we were there but I did buy come scented candles and a new winter coat. We hadn't been to Blackpool since I was pregnant with our youngest child 18 years ago and our other child was only 3 years old back then so neither of them had seen or had any memories of Blackpool and the illuminations.  On our last visit I had met Geoff Capes, of World's Strongest Man fame, who was waiting for my father-in-law to be ready to go with him and a couple of other guys on an aviary visit to another Budgerigar breeder as both Geoff and my father-in-law bred and showed Budgerigars and strangely, despite the age difference, both of them have passed away this year, with Geoff only passing away about a week ago and my father-in-law passed away back in May of this year. 

I didn't take any craft projects with me and so I completed this on my return home and the overall fibre content is now 98% Acrylic, 2% Polyester.

Lilac and Purple Lacy Crochet Scarf

This one is made with some King Cole Big Value Baby 4ply in Lilac that I thought I bought about 2 years ago but it turns out that I actually bought it just over 7 years ago. Oh how Covid has made the years meld into each other.  As this is only 4ply and thin I have had to work it held double.

100g/400m and 100% Acrylic

The other yarn that I used is some new Stylecraft Special Chunky in shade 1840 - Purple and I have used this just as it comes.

100g/144m and 100% Acrylic

On this scarf, I have used all of one ball of the lilac and 73g/105m of the purple. I did take just one photo of this scarf in the making and I posted it to Instagram with the caption of "Work in progress on this Saturday night.... and working on this scarf....".  Then began the onslaught of silly messages asking if this was still available blah blah blah and people asking for my bank details as they have been scammed in the past.  So have I and I don't fall for rubbish like that.  I even had one person offer me £150 for it but as I told them, it won't be that expensive and it will be sent tracked signed and apparently every link to my shop doesn't work so can I provide personal details so they can send money. Erm, no I can't!  No actual money has ever been forthcoming for this item, which they didn't ask a single thing about - size, measurements, fibre content, nothing!  All scammers and spammers. They joys of social media!

Sparkly Purple Lacy Crochet Scarf

Now that I have gotten that brown slippery yarn out of the way and made up into a scarf I can get on and enjoy making another one.  Unusually for me, I have some brand new mass produced yarns, only a few balls recently purchased in order to make a hat for my mother-in-law and I gave her a choice of all the yarns and now I can use the other yarns.  

First up is some King Cole Glitz DK in Orion's Amethyst, a dark purple with a multi-coloured pastel metallic thread that is so pretty.  

Orion's Amethyst is 97% Premium Acrylic, 3% Polyester

Because this is quite a thin yarn I have had to work this with two strands held together and the accompanying yarn is some new Stylecraft Special Chunky in shade Proper Purple, which I have worked just as it comes.

Proper Purple is 100% Premium Acrylic

Sirdar Duet Lacy Crochet Scarf

Continuing on with making these lacy crochet scarves I have been summoning up the muster to have yet another go with trying to make something using some Sirdar Duet in Mahogany brown.   I've tried a few different patterns now and it just looks limp and lifeless and I've had to undo everything and try again.  It doesn't look like it but it is actually a worsted weight yarn.

56% Cotton, 44% Nylon

It is really horrible stuff to work with, especially the shiny slippery part of the yarn and it needs to be used in a design that is more structured and sturdy.  I didn't use all of the yarn that I had and I just binned the left overs as they really are not worth worrying about.  I actually have this yarn in three more colours, blue, white and black and the plan is to make more shawls the same as I did years ago, which is actually a pattern specifically for this yarn. 

I had my doubts about this scarf but I persevered and its come out OK despite the fact that it is technically all in one colour.

Aqua and White Lacy Crochet Scarf

I am sticking with this gorgeous scarf pattern but going back to the Vintage aqua blue Luxury Mohair by Chevy that I used to make a broomstick lace scarf and pairing it with some off white Vintage Lister Lee Tahiti.  The overall fibre content shifts slightly to be 79% Mohair, 13% Wool, 8% Nylon.

78% Mohair, 13% Wool, 9% Nylon

81% Mohair (including 9% Kid Mohair), 14% Wool, 5% Nylon

This Lister Lee Tahiti is very nice and I would say that it is the softest Mohair yarn that I have ever worked with so far.  I do have some very well world-wide known Rowan Kidsilk Haze, which is a laceweight Mohair yarn, but I cannot compare it to that as I have never gotten around to using the Rowan yet.  I do have a good amount of vintage Lister Lee Tamarisk, which is kind of a finer version of the Tahiti, so that will interesting when I get around to working that up in the future, and I had to pinch a bit of it for the off-white fringing as I ran out of the Tahiti so had to combine the two for the fringing.  I digress.

So, straight in with the finished product photos.

Summer Berries Lacy Crochet Scarf

I love this crochet scarf pattern so much that I am going to stick with it for a while and make a few of these in different colours.  So, I've picked up the left overs of the Colinette Mohair Summer Berries from the broomstick lace scarf I made and paired it with some vintage Lister Lee Tahiti in a lilac colour, which looks like it will work with the Summer Berries.

78% Mohair, 13% Wool, 9% Nylon

81% Mohair (including 9% Kid Mohair), 14% Wool, 5% Nylon

I've not used the vintage Tahiti before, I have some of this in other colours, and it is very soft, much softer than the Colinette Mohair, probably the Kid Mohair element has something to do with it.  The overall fibre content shifts slightly to be 79% Mohair, 13% Wool, 8% Nylon. With the differences in colour of the Colinette Mohair skeins, due to it being "hand-dyed", I used up some of the darker left overs for the middle section and then switched to the lightest skein for outer edge sections.  This does show up on the scarf and gives and interesting effect.

Once again, no work-in-progress photos, so straight to the finished product.

Storm and White Lacy Crochet Scarf

Carrying on with scarf making but switching to a different pattern.  I already had some old, but not yet vintage, Jarol Rambler Aran in white in my stash and I had recently gone to my local craft shop to find something use with it and purchased some Stylecraft Special Aran in shade Storm Blue.  Both yarns are 100% Acrylic.

This one is worked sideways from the centre working outwards then re-join on the other side of the centre chain and work the other side.  Interesting construction which is a little fiddly to begin with but once you have one row worked on either side of the chain it is easy.

No work-in-progress photos so straight to the finished item.

Design LF433 - Pretty in Baby Pink & Purple

I started making this as soon as I finished making the last one, on 25th April 2023.

All of the threads used on this project are taken from one dye lot per colour. I didn't take any work-in-progress photos at all and I have no idea how I forgot to do that, other than the fact that my father-in-law passed away the first week of May and I was busy helping my mother-in-law and husband with all that that entails.

Design LF433 - Pretty in Purple and Cerise

I started making this back in September 2023, using this project as something to work on when I had to sit in a café and while away an hour or so when my youngest first started college and was only in for 2 hours on a Friday morning and it wasn't worth driving home to turn around and come back again.  He was in for longer the rest of the week and also at times when I had to sit and wait at appointments and such.  I don't have to sit and wait now so I've decided to finish making it a bit quicker.

As what often happens on these projects using the vintage Twilley's Goldfingering, specifically with the thread for the flower centres and/or the flower petals, I ended up having to use two different dye lots for the pale gold centres so I made sure to checkerboard them across the entire shawl so that if there is any noticeable difference it then becomes a design feature. If I have to use more than one dye lot for the main colour, I tend to use one for the crochet and the other dye lot for the fringing or a mix of both in the fringing.

Design LF433 - Pretty in Orange and Lime

The day after I finished the last shawl, I started making this one.  Unfortunately, I didn't calculate things correctly, and I ran out of lime green before I was able to make enough flowers.  I put in a lot of effort, searching the internet and trying a couple of alternatives, but there was nothing around that was even close in colour to this particular shade of lime.  That's what happens when you create things using vintage materials.  Twilley's stopped making this thread in all but seven standard colours: white, black, silver, light gold, gold, bright red, and bright green, years ago. The company went out of business entirely in February 2020, after operating for approximately 100 years.

The upshot is that I have made one of my usual shawls, but this one is a little smaller, one entire row of motifs less than normal, and therefore at a lower price point.

Design A447 - Blues and White

Another of these shawls made to an updated vintage pattern and this time I have chosen blue and white.  All of the darkest blues will go into this shawl along with a mix of medium and light blue as I have already planned my next shawl as well so I know what colours I need.

In terms of how many motifs of each colour I was able to make from the leftovers and how many I made from the slightly larger amounts are as follows, in order from top right to the bottom left: 

Spray Blue = 11 motifs, Light wash = 5 motifs, Light jeans = 3 motifs

                                     Jeans blue = 8 motifs, Navy blue = 4 motifs

White =  main, Light Ice Blue = 7 motifs, Light Blue = 10 motifs 

Petrol = 4 motifs, Navy = 12 motifs                                               

I have reverted back to having a central strip with mirrored layout on either side as I think it works better than totally random and then having to try and make sure the colours don't pool too much in one place.

I like this one, a lot, but then I do like blue, not that you can tell with the blue rug in the lounge and the fences outside are all painted blue...