how to add tassels to a scarf

For all I know there is a much fancier way of doing this. As I've mentioned before, I am far from expert when it comes to crochet. I just made this up. Worked for me :) 

This is the first perfect scarf I've ever made and that's because I had to unravel half of it four different times to fix mistakes. But when I finally got to the end, I was so pleased! It was really worth the extra effort.

Especially because this particular scarf is a gift for my lovely five-year-old niece. Isn't the yarn so cute? I thought of her immediately when I saw it. And it'll last her a long time because it'll go with any color jacket (you know, since growing children need a new one almost every season!). 

I wanted to make it a little more interesting than just a plain old scarf, so I decided to add some tassels. Here's how I did that. 

1. Cut three pieces of yarn a little more than twice as long as you want your tassels to be (longer is better, you will be trimming them at the end). 2. Fold them in half. 3. & 4. My scarf has ten chains. I tried to space the tassels as evenly as possible, even though 10 is not evenly divisible by 4. Poke your crochet hook through where you want your tassels to be. 5. Hook the loop of your tassel and pull through. 6. Widen the loop with your fingers without pulling the ends through. 7. Fold the ends of your yarn over the end of your scarf from below and pull through the loop. 8. & 9. Pull to tighten. 10. Repeat, spacing your tassels evenly across the scarf. 11. Trim the ends of your tassels to the same length. 12. Aaand you're done!

I hope it's pretty straight forward, but please feel totally free to post any questions you may have in the comments! The best part of this is that you aren't knotting anything (though you can, if you want to), so if you don't get it right the first time, it's really easy to start over.

Peace & love,
-A.

learn a new skill: crochet

A couple years ago I taught myself how to crochet by watching videos on Youtube. I'm not an expert and I sort of end up re-teaching myself every fall, but it's something that I enjoy doing, even my scarves end up skinnier by the end than they were when I started. Whatever, right? It's relaxing and there's something comforting about holding all that soft yarn in your hands.

I once also took knitting lessons, but I wasn't able to pick it up the way I had hoped. I think it may be a more versatile skill but it doesn't go as quickly as crochet. I'm a pretty impatient person so quicker is always better for me.

Crochet I think is also a lot easier to teach to yourself. It's just one hook, versus two needles. Whenever anyone expresses to me an interest in learning, I try to impress upon them how simple it is for them to teach themselves. Maybe I'm not great at it, and I can't do anything fancy, but I picked up the basics in a single day. I just need to practice more.

Above is a pictures of a scarf I made recently. I'm pretty lucky that I get to crochet at work if I want to. That's where I finished this!

Here are some great resources if you feel inspired to start learning a new skill!

Peace and love,
-A.