SPLIT PERSONALITY by Tracy St. John

My crocheted afghan scarf is my favorite thing I have ever made. Ever. I think I am going to ask to be buried with it if I haven’t completely worn it out by then.  A group of my crochet friends gathered with me and we all started happily making hexagons together. It was so much fun to make all of my little hexagons out of mountains of  lightweight scrap and watching the mismatched colors glow together as if I had a plan for them. ” What a great idea, this is the best project ever!”, I remember thinking. It was so much fun until it came time to weave in all of those *&$#@ ends. About halfway through my fabulous scrappy masterpiece, I realized that I was NEVER going to finish it. I could not abide the thought of making even one more adorable little hexagon and then weaving in all six of the ends that were its annoying little offspring. So, I did what every resourceful crafter does when faced with the insurmountable obstacle of project apathy…..I cheated.

I believe it took me about three months to make the hexagon portion of the scarf, and about three days to finish it off in shell stitch. I love my scarf. I love that it is different on each side. I love that it represents two classic afghan designs that my grandma would have had laying over her sofa. Mostly, I love that it is finished. I can happily ignore my crochet friends’ bitter mockery of my decision to take the easy way out while I have my favorite scarf wrapped around my neck.  I’m pretty sure they are just jealous anyway; after all, I have a fabulous completed scarf, and they have lots and lots of ends to weave in.

For those of you who have less pride than sense, here is my recipe for you to make your own split personality afghan scarf. I call it a recipe because it may not be the most in-depth pattern ever written, but you will get the hang of it as you go, and probably season it to your own taste. Maybe you will change course in the middle and create your own recipe. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine!

Use whatever yarn you like with the appropriate size hook for your yarn. I used sport and sock yarn, and a size D hook.

Hexagons

With color of choice, ch 4, join with sl st to form ring.
Round 1: Ch 3 (counts as 1st dc), dc in ring, ch 1, *2 dc in ring, ch 1; rep from * 4 times more, sl st in top of beg ch-3 to join. End off color -6 ch-1 sps.

Round 2: Attach color of choice in any ch-1 sp. Ch 3 (counts as 1st dc), dc in same sp, ch 2, 2 dc in same sp, ch 1, *2 dc in next ch-1 sp, ch 2, 2 dc in same sp, ch 1; rep from * 4 times more, sl st in top of beg ch-3 to join. End off color.

Round 3 (first motif only): Attach color of choice in any ch-1 sp. Ch 1, 1 sc in same sp, *sc in next 2 dc, 3 sc in next ch-2 sp, sc in next 2 dc, sc in next ch-1 sp; rep from * around, ending last rep sc in next 2 dc, 3 sc in next ch-2 sp, sc in next 2 dc. Sl st in beg sc to join. End off color. Weave in all ends.
Round 3 (joining round for all subsequent motifs): Attach color of choice in any ch-1 sp. Ch 1, sc in same sp, *sc in next 2 dc, 2 sc in next ch-2 sp, sl st in 2nd of 3- sc corner group of first motif, one more sc in same ch-2 sp of current motif, sc in next 2 dc, sc in next ch-1 sp, sl st in corresponding sc of first motif; rep from * for as many sides as need to be joined, then refer to rnd 3 of the first motif to complete round for the un-joined sides. End off, weave in ends.

Make and join as many hexagons as you can stand doing. I strongly urge you to weave in the ends of each hex as you complete it. You can refer to the photos here to see how many hexes wide I made my scarf and how I arranged them. When you are tired of hexagons, you will need to make some half-hexes to give you a straight top edge in which to begin working your shell stitch. I made two half-hexes for the top of mine.

Half-Hexagon

With color of choice, ch 4, join with sl st to form ring.

Row 1: Ch 4 (counts as dc, ch 1),  (2 dc in ring, ch 1) 3 times, dc in ring, end off color.

Row 2: Join next color in last ch-1 sp of Row 1. Ch 5 (counts as dc, ch 2), 2 dc in same sp, [ch 1, (2 dc, ch 2 dc) in next ch-1 sp] twice, ch 1, (2 dc, ch 2, dc in last ch-1 sp. End off color.

Row 3:(Note: you will treat this row as you would a round 3 of a full hex, and join the half-hex to the scarf at the appropriate points, just as you would for a full hex.) Join next color in last ch-2 sp of Row 2. Ch 1,   sc in same sp, (join), sc in same sp, sc in next 2 dc, sc in next ch-1 sp(join), [sc in next 2 dc, 3 sc in next ch-2 sp (join), sc in next 2 dc, sc in next ch-1 sp (join)] twice, sc in next 2 dc, sc in last ch-2 sp (join), work 1 more sc in same ch-2 sp, end off.

Shell Stitch

This particular shell stitch is a multiple of four sts plus one. It is only important that your edge lays flat, without being “ruffled” (too many sts), or “puckered” (too few sts). With RS of scarf facing, join yarn to straight top edge of scarf. Ch 1, then work evenly spaced scs across the width of the scarf. If you do not get a correct multiple on your first try across the scarf, you can work one more row of sc, increasing or decreasing as necessary to get the correct multiple, just keep in mind what you want your edge to look like when deciding whether to increase or decrease.

Row 1: Ch 1, sc in same st, * sk  next st, 3 dc in next st, sk next st, sc in next st; rep from * across, turn. End off current color and change to new color if desired.

Row 2: Ch 3 (counts as dc), dc in same st, *sk next st, sc in next st, sk next st, 3 dc in next st; rep from * across, working 2 dc in last st to end last rep. End off color if desired, turn.

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 until your shell stitch section is the desired length, changing colors as desired. If you like, you can crochet over your ends as you go so that you don’t have to contest with all of those ends once your scarf is finished.

Edging

With RS facing, join color of choice to any sc worked into ch-sp on any hexagon on the hexagon side of the scarf. Ch 1, sc in same st. *Ch 3 (or 4, or as many as you like, depending on how loopy you want your edging to be), sc in sc above next ch-sp; rep from * along the hexagon portion of the scarf. When you reach the shell stitch portion of the scarf, treat the end of each row which ended in 2 dc (row 2 of the shell stitch portion) as you would the ch-sp of the hexagon portion and **work a sc in the side of the next dc, ch 3; rep from ** along side of shell st portion. When you reach the bottom (short) edge of the shells, ***sc in the 2nd of the 3 dc of each shell, ch 3; rep from *** along bottom edge. Resume working from ** along other long edge of shell portion. Work from * when you reach the other side of the hexagon portion, sl st in beg sc to join when edging is complete.

Weave in whatever ends are left to weave, block your scarf lightly, and amaze your friends while you wear your own finished masterpiece. In this case, cheaters DO prosper!