My Delicious New Scarf!

Crochet is a new hobby of mine.  I've crocheted quite a few baby hats before this point, but I haven't really had a use for my skill outside of that arena.  Perhaps because a lot of those crochet clothing patterns look a lot like something my grandmother would have made for me, and I would have smiled and thanked her and shoved it in the depths of my closet never to see the light of day again.  But I also have a thing for scarves.  I have this black scarf I was eyeing the other day, and I realized (and remember, I'm still running on new mommy brain, so this realization might be a big "duh" to everyone else) that the scarf was definitely crocheted!  So, could I make one?  I hopped on ETSY and bought a pattern for a Grande Circle Scarf from I'll Be Yarned's shop.  The scarf comes in three sizes and basically is just a regular scarf sewn together (so I guess there are 6 scarves patterns--sewn and not sewn).

Don't let it fool you, this scarf would kill you and everyone you loved if it had the chance. 

This is the medium size scarf.  I bought my yarn earlier today for my new scarf and for a pattern for a hat.  Now, they are both wool, but different sizes... and wouldn't you know, the freaking yarn company doesn't have matching colors in the two sizes!  So my hat will end up being charcoal, like my coat, and my scarf is a gray mottled color.  I like both colors.  I'd like them better if they were the same color.  But at least they had neutrals at all... I could have ended up with some wonky colors and then where would I be?  (Well, wherever I was, I'd be wearing a wonky colored scarf and hat).
And you heard me, I bought the yarn today.  A lot of teachers would insist today they made a difference, that's what they made.  Well, I don't know about all that, but I definitely made a scarf today!  I picked the medium size from the pattern (yes, there is one even BIGGER than this, I can't imagine).  It wasn't very hard.  The pattern was nice, because it at least told me how many stitches, size of yarn, and size of hook.  However, I kind of felt like actually purchasing this pattern was a little stupid---it's just a bunch of double crochet stitches!  Like I couldn't have figured that out.  I should write my own patterns--this is like highway robbery for the insanely non-spatially inclined among us.
I also had to buy a new crochet hook.  Silly me when I saw the size, I still envisioned a pretty tiny hook.  No, I had this giant thing:

I feel like that Crocodile Dundee movie--that's not a crochet hook, THIS is a crochet hook!

It was super simple ( won't cheat and just outright give the pattern).  The hardest part was counting the insane amount of chain stitches at the beginning.  I have trouble counting and I have trouble counting chains that large, so I'm not ashamed to tell you I redid that step about ten times before I finally made it to the 70s.  So, then a bazillion double crochet stitches later and whala!  I have a scarf.
I'm curious to try the hat pattern (different vendor) and see how it turns out.  I won't be making this hat nearly as fast as I did the scarf.  It was just a brief scarfy obsession that spurred me on so fast.  But I like the end results!  I can't believe it was so large, but it's really cuddly and yummy and warm.  Yay for scarves!

What a model... ignore the gym hair.