Ginkgo Night Moves scarf

This free pattern is Night Moves, a lovely shawl or scarf designed by PurpleIguana. For my project, I followed Fiber Spider's video tutorial and patern mods. His mods begin when we reach the first decreasing row. 

I also greatly appreciate PurpleIguana's notes about yarn usage that she included on her Ravelry project page. 

The shape of these crochet shells reminds me of ginkgo leaves. 

Fiber Spider project inspo photo

I had a partial cake of the Red Heart It's a Wrap Rainbow in the Foggy colorway that had 134 grams  out of the original 150 grams. (I also had two other full-size cakes on hand.) I wanted to try to use all of the partial cake for this scarf, so, based on the notes on PurpleIguana's project page (linked above), I calculated that I needed to crochet my scarf until it weighed about 89 grams before starting the decrease rows described in Fiber Spider's mods.

I was working from the white end of the cake to the gray end of the cake. On my first attempt, I started the decreases a bit early and ended up with still having quite a bit of the gray left, so I placed a marker to indicate where I started decreasing and then ripped back to that point. Then I crocheted another four-row repeat section using the original (increasing) stitch sequence before starting the decreasing rows again.

As you can see in my photo, the plies of this yarn are not spun at all, which can sometimes make it a bit fiddly to work with. But, overall, it is a lovely yarn that feels soft and light.

Plies not spun

On that second attempt, I ended up running out of the gray a few rows before the end of the scarf, so I stole a few grams of the gray end of one of my other cakes to complete this project. 😂 Hey, it's my yarn stash; I can do what I want with it. 😹

Before blocking

I soaked the scarf in a washtub with a splash of Woolite and a few drops of peppermint essential oil mixed in, with the hope that some of the fragrance will remain in the fiber after it's dried. I would have liked to have used lavender essential oil for the fragrance, but I only had peppermint on hand, so I used what I had. But now I'm thinking that I need to add a vial of the lavender to my collection soon (ha!!). This project turned out so well that I'm intending to enter it in the fair this fall, and I would like the fiber to have some lingering fragrance, if possible, to please the judges. 🤞

After rinsing and gently squeezing the scarf, I rolled it inside a fluffy bath towel and pressed out the remaining excess water. Then I pinned it to the blocking boards, gently pulling out the bottom sawtooth points and opening up the lace. As you can see in the photos, the blocking makes the scarf several inches taller than it was before blocking. But it would be lovely either way, with or without blocking.

Blocking

 

Witchypoo Scarf

This pattern came to me when I was drifting in that place where I was not quite asleep but not quite awake. It's an easy crescent moon-shaped scarf that can be made with just about any yarn at any gauge. Just in time for Halloween stitching, I present to you the Witchypoo Scarf!

The Witchypoo Scarf can be made in a solid colorway, or a variegated, or an ombre, or in any yarn that your heart desires, but I think making it in two colors really makes the curves of the crescent shape pop visually.

304 stitches on needle

Comprised of mostly mindless, movie-watching-friendly, reversible garter stitch, you only need to pay attention to what you're doing during the first few stitches of each row, where the bottom edging detail is worked as you go.

200 stitches on needle

This pattern is best worked with an interchangeable needle with a long cable (at least 42 inches) to accommodate the large number of stitches.

Seeing the black and purple stripes in my scarf reminds me of the fun witchy-poo striped tights that my daughters used to wear at Halloween, which are memories that bring a smile to my soul. I hope your soul will find reasons to smile, too, as you knit and wear this scarf.

Measuring my gauge

As you can see in the "measuring my gauge" photo above, my gauge is about 4 stitches per inch and 4 rows per inch. Details about the yarn and needles used are on my Ravelry project page.

The scarf grows quickly; the only reason why it took me a couple of months to finish mine is because I was multitasking and working on several other projects at the same time. 😂 

My only question now is: Should I release this scarf design as a paid pattern? Would you be interested in making it if the pattern was available?