A couple of weeks ago Ali AKA Thimberlina posted photos of a scarf she had crocheted over a New Year break, it was gorgeous and a few of us were asking about the pattern. It turned out that it was from a very old magazine of her Mums!

A few days later and Ali kindly posted her version of the instructions, I’m pretty new to crochet (ok, I’m a complete novice!) but I decided the instructions were clear enough even for me! I’m not sure why the photo below has come out pink, it’s the same scarf as the purple wool below, honest!!

Ali calls hers the Octopus scarf as it has many legs! I’ve called mine a Dodepus scarf as it has twelve legs! The ‘legs’ are basically a long chain with one row of double crochet, I did have to concentrate a lot not to do treble crochet instead, which is what my ripple blanket is being stitched in! The legs are all joined together at each end. Ali did mention to concentrate on not twisting the chain before reattaching, clearly I didn’t concentrate enough as my first chain twisted, in my defense I was doing it during my break on a night shift! I did wonder if the way I was reattaching them was where they twisted as I learnt to double-check as I got to the end of the double crochet row so I could do a quick fiddle if needed! So I’ve just got one twisted, luckily it’s not noticeable, I’m not sure if my dodepus has been dancing too enthusiastically or needs the bathroom 🙂

The wool is from Fletchers stall on Leeds market, it’s gorgeous, the photo above is pretty close to the actual colour, all plummy purples and slate grey. It’s called Colour rich Chunky by Hayfield, I love it. As it’s chunky wool so I used a 6mm crochet hook, which also gave me chance to use a lovely wooden hook I bought years ago, just because I thought it was beautiful!

I found in a crochet book how to make a buttonhole, so rather rashly I decided to make my scarf fasten with a button. I found three buttons of various sizes in my button box and aimed it at the smallest, not sure what happened but once finished it fits the biggest perfectly! It’s a beautiful button which I think was on a cape my mum once gave me. The cape went but I saved the button!

I folded the finished scarf into the middle to reduce the size of the ends, I did it into the middle so I could sew round the buttonhole! I used blanket stitch along the ends. To wear it the scarf is just twisted on itself into a rope and secured with the button.

I’m really pleased with my scarf, it’s the first crochet item I’ve finished and worn. So thank you Ali for the inspiration and the instructions 🙂