I gotta be honest, talking about myself and the things I made or do around The Homestead isn’t one of my favorite things to do so writing a post like today is kinda hard.
So with that said, here I go.
Last winter while Papa Bear was still out in North Carolina on active duty, I thought I’d teach myself how to knit and crochet. I really like to keep myself busy and since the ice an snow of winter makes it harder to get outside, I thought teaching myself a new craft or another way of being creative would be good.
I did manage to crochet a simple scarf for myself and I fought my way though a half knitted baby blanket but for some reason or another, learning how to knit and crochet just didn’t really turn out like I thought it would.
I had a hard time getting into it I guess.
This winter, however, has been different. This winter everything seems to have fallen into place. Between knitting and crocheting, I’ve been learning a variety of stitches and tackling several projects along the way.
The latest crochet stitch I’ve been working on is called the crocodile stitch or scale stitch, and like any new stitch I’ve learned, I end up wanting to make something out of it.
Since I’d been thinking about making something for our neighbor’s daughters as a way of saying, “thank you”, for all the times they’ve come over to check in on Evie when we’ve been gone, it occurred to me that maybe I could make something using this new stitch.
That something ended up being neck warmers or cowls.
These ended up being easier to make that I first though they’d be. The hardest part was picking out the yard. It’s amazing how many choices there are when it comes to yarn!
In the end I went with Simply Soft by Caron. It was one of the few brands I found at Michaels that was super soft and came in pink and purple, the girls favorite colors.
On the inside I sewed in an layer of fleece. I figured this would help add more warmth.
Plus the fleece helps to hide the backside of the stitch.
I haven’t been able to give the girls their neck warmers yet so I can’t report if they were a hit or not. I figure if they wear them it’ll be something unique for them to have, (meaning not every young girl at school will be wearing one too), and if they don’t, that’s OK too. It was a great project to work on for me and it stirred up even MORE thoughts of future projects to work on!
It’s amazing to me. What I figured in the beginning would just be something to pass the cold winter days has turned into something I really enjoy and can see myself doing all year round.
If you’d like to conquer the crocodile stitch yourself, there are tons of helpful Youtube videos out there but here is the one I used.
If written directions are more your thing, here is the Rio scarf done with the crocodile stitch made by the same person that’s in the youtube video. Michael Sellick at The Crochet Crowd.
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