Bobbly Stripy Circle Scarf (or Crochet Confessions of a Scarf-aholic)

I have lots and lots of scarves which may or may not have something to do with the years I lived in France and got somehow brain-washed into thinking that all outfits at all times of the year require at least one scarf. It's just the French way. When they're not wrapped around my neck, my scarfs get stashed in a basket on top of the cupboard and hung up in the wardrobe and flung over the backs of chairs and stuffed in bags.... I have square ones, long fat woolly ones, silky soft ones, crocheted shawl ones, scarves of every colour, size and shape and even scarves I bought specifically for the purpose of decorating my flat because they're just so pretty. There certainly isn't a scarf drought going on in these parts.

However, amongst this vast collection, there was not one single circle scarf or cowl and having seen people wearing them over the last year or so, I couldn't help but notice that they seem so practical (no way they can unwind and fall off your neck) and so pretty and really quite necessary. Just call me a scarf-aholic. Anyway, rather than waste time justifying my decision, I got busy last week with my hook and wool stash and whipped this circle scarf up (after all, it's finally started getting cold here so there's no time to waste!). Here it is laid out flat....

I was really inspired by the different stripes, stitches and colour explosion going on in this beautiful blanket but wanted to translate it to my favourite part of the spectrum (you might have noticed that most of my favourite crocheted things are are mixture of these colours. These are the colours that make me happy, all warm and firey and so much like the falling autumn leaves that I love)..

image from here

I started with a chain of 120 stitches which I joined into a circle. This seemed like a decent length when I looped it around my neck. Then picking my colours pretty much at random as I went along, I got to hooking up the stripes, making my circle grow into a tube shape as I went. I used a mixture of single crochet, double crochet, half-double crochet and granny stripe stitches (which is why I made my original chain a multiple of 3) for variety and I also included some sweet little bobbles like the ones in the blanket that inspired it. Here are some close-ups of those lovely colourful stripes...

And here's what it looks like wrapped around my neck (funny how the light has altered the colours of the wool somewhat in the photos, it looks really different above and below! I would say the first photo right at the top and the pictures below are a better indication of the real life colours)....

Ahhh it's so snug and cosy. My neck will be very happy indeed this winter.

In other wool related news, I took a trip to the haberdashery last week. Here's my bounty, all lined up, a mixture of Robin double knit and Patons Fab double knit....

You may have noticed that it's the other side of the colour spectrum completely...

image from here

...but that's because this time this wool isn't for me. It's for some Christmas presents which means I'd better say no more. Lets just say that things are about to get real ripply around here :)

What have you been hooking up lately? Any other scarf addicts out there?
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