Crochet Maven

About a week or so ago I saw the crochet houndstooth pattern on YouTube and thought I’d give it a whirl. Traditionally houndstooth is with black and white but that didn’t stop me. Instead I used a couple of colors from my stash, pumpkin and slate. The houndstooth pattern is simple, one single crochet, one double crochet, alternating to the end or the row or round. Then, alternate the colors and stitches. A double in the single in the row below, a single in the double…

I like the pattern and the look, so I made a hat and it worked up well. Then for the scarf, I worked it in horizontal rows, for fewer color changes. I tried a couple of things so I wouldn’t have to pull the yarn through.

The first set worked up well, so I wanted to try again with different yarn in different colors to see if I still liked it. For the second attempt, I worked the scarf vertically in a dark charcoal and black and white marl yarn. Halfway through the scarf, I grew tired of the color changes every other row.

Love the pattern and the look of it, but dislike changing yarn every row especially with the shorter rows for a vertical scarf. There are longer but fewer rows in a horizontal scarf and I think I’d do it that way next time with a border to hide some of the trailing yarn and woven edges. After changing colors so frequently using the houndstooth stitch for the vertical scarf, I found a way that worked for me to keep the edges neat with minimal ends to weave in at the end.

While the houndstooth pattern takes a while to change colors for an overall project, this pattern has possibilities for fun, colorful designs especially to use mini skeins or oddballs for hats and accents in scarves. The stitches were fine and took a while but remembering or being able to find the single crochet in the dark rows to make a double crochet became mind numbing and I know that several rows aren’t perfect but they worked out, regardless of the non-alternating flub in a few spaces.

Houndstooth is deceptively simple but requires a lot of attention and isn’t the pattern if you want to relax and crochet. There are some mini skeins from my stash that I have my eye on to add some flair to otherwise simple hats or scarves. For now, I want to go back to some quick and easy projects that don’t require as much attention beyond the set up rows.

Single crochet, double crochet; single crochet, double to end, change color at end, change color and chain two and turn, then double crochet in single, single in double etc. ad nauseam… It’s the ad nauseam part that makes you doubt everything you know about counting and changing but it works up beautifully.

Happy crocheting!