Tag: gift - Timber Creek Farm

An easy gift that you can make in as little as a few hours is a simple scarf pattern. Crocheting is a relaxing hobby that can be used to make beautiful gifts for others or something lovely for yourself! Fiber animals produce wool that can be felted or spun into yarn. The yarn can be woven, knit, crocheted or needle felted depending on what you wish to make. Knitting and crocheting are easy to carry along with you as you wait for doctor appointments, sit in the car pickup line at school, or travel. Once you master a few basic stitches, crocheting a simple scarf pattern is easy to accomplish.

Simple Scarf Pattern – Supplies Needed

There are very few items you will need when crocheting a simple scarf pattern like the one provided here. You will want to purchase a crochet hook that is the size recommended. Crochet hooks come in over 25 different sizes! Often, crochet hooks are sold in sets, which gives you some options the next time you are looking at projects to crochet. Knitting requires knitting needles which also come in various sizes.

For the pattern shown here, one skein of our Free Range Yarn in 200 yd length will give you plenty of yardage to complete the scarf. If choosing another brand of yarn, make sure the skein has at least 150 yards. Having more yardage allows you to adjust the length of the scarf pattern.

Using Patterns for Crocheting and Knitting

The knitting patterns often use shorthand notation to describe the stitching technique. Crochet patterns also use similar notations in the patterns. At first when looking at a pattern, you might not understand what it is saying. Looking up a chart for crochet or knitting pattern reading will help you get started with out the frustration. I had my Nana sitting next to me when I was learning to crochet and knit as a child. This may not be an option all of the time. Nothing can replace a Nana but You-Tube videos are a second option when you don’t understand how to complete a stitch.

The Yarn

Here at Timber Creek Farm, we have created our own line of yarn for knitting and crocheting. The yarns are blends of wool from our Pygora goats, Finn, Border Leicester, Rambouillet, and Dorset sheep. Our wool animals are raised with love and kept in a chemical free environment, fed mostly on pasture and naturally raised grass hay. The wool is shorn once a year in the Spring. You can read more about our yarn raising adventures here. All of our yarn blends, available in our shop are perfect for this project.

Choose the yarn depending on the item you are making. Generally you will choose a sport, DK or worsted weight of yarn, for a scarf. There are many styles, blends and colors to choose from. My personal preference is to use natural fibers, including wool, alpaca, mohair, and llama. Plant fibers are found in yarn too, with bamboo, cotton and silk. Making your own yarn by purchasing the raw fleece, combing, carding and spinning the yarn blend that you prefer is another option. Timber Creek Farm’s line of Free Range Yarns are perfect for making simple gifts, like this scarf, or more elaborate sweaters. Perhaps one day you will want to try natural dyes for wool, too. There is no end to the creativity once you learn how to knit and crochet.

The Basic Crochet Stitch

The single crochet stitch is made holding the hook in the right hand and the yarn in the left hand. (For right handed people.) You will be using the single crochet stitch in the pattern for making a Button Hole Crochet Scarf.

1. Begin the single crochet stitch by making a loop and a knot at the end of the yarn.

2. Holding the yarn in the left hand, pull the yarn through the first loop using the crochet hook. Now you have one loop on the hook and one hanging below the hook. Repeat to make a chain of 16. This is the foundation row.

3. Chain one additional loop for turning. Turn the work and begin to make a single crochet stitch in the first loop hole of the foundation chain.

4. Single crochet to the end of the row.

If you prefer, you can single crochet an entire scarf this way. Make sure you always chain one stitch at the end of each row, for turning.

Single

Double Crochet Stitch

Much the same as the single crochet stitch, you begin with the crochet hook entering the loop on the chain or row of stitches. This video does a good job of showing you the double crochet stitch used in the pattern below.

Free Printable Pattern for You!

The pattern for the simple Button Hole Crochet Scarf is next. You can wear this short scarf in a number of different ways. The scarf would look nice over a t-shirt, or tucked under a jacket. The button hole and decorative button add style to the simple stitch pattern.