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!
My new routine includes going for a walk which is a way to be more mobile, since I work on the computer for hours each day and then read for a bit. There’s no walking to from public transportation to the office. My route varies and I enjoy seeing the flowers and little free libraries that are decorated in different designs. I also check out the offerings in the boxes to see if there is anything I’d like to read. My walks have also become inspirational, not just in the spiritual sense of taking a break and movement as a way of relieving stress, but inspirational as in seeing the different colors in nature or art installations that give me ideas on how to combine different colors in scarves and afghans from my stash.
not just the wonderful fragrance of the flowers and greenery but the vibrant colors. Then when I come home and look at what colors I have and can combine. Even if I don’t have the same colors to replicate what I’ve seen, ideas come to me. Until recently, since the beginning of the pandemic, the only yarn that I purchased was for a friend’s gift. A few days ago, I ordered some natural wool because I didn’t have any and needed some for a dyeing project and didn’t want to pay shipping on my order. This means that colors I would not have normally put together have been combined.
Planning isn’t really that involved especially for a scarf. This is how the conversation in my head goes: “Not enough of this and not enough of that? Well, let’s put them together and see how it looks!” This happened when I combined two green multis to make a scarf. In the photo, the light section in the dark ombre looks white but it’s a light mint. The yarn was leftover from another project and it was too much to add to a 
Combining colors helps me use up what I have in creative innovative ways to make truly unique items. Also, it helps me put off winding yarn.