This design came together very organically, which I love. I've somehow never worked with a tweed yarn before, so I was pretty excited to see this bold little hank of Doubt and Suspicion from Karen Robinson of Round Table Yarns in shipment number five of the Tristan and Isolde Yarn Club.
And isn't that a great colorway name!? A muted gold with black flecks from the dye resistant nylon content, this yarn just begged for some fun black buttons.
As an aran weight yarn (a bulky 4), there is less yardage in 100g, so this quickly went from cowl to neck warmer, ha ha. But it worked out perfectly! Okay, actually the first time it didn't. I ran out of yarn with one row left and had to take it all out and make it a few stitches shorter. But THAT was perfect!
The subtle texture from working into the third loop of half double crochet stitches and a tiny bit of surface crochet along with angled edges made this just different enough to be interesting without using complicated stitches, which also allows that fun tweedy yarn to really shine. And merino wool is always fabulous, so it blocked beautifully.
And the buttons! I originally wanted to use bigger ones, but the ones I had picked out were just TOO big. And I had these handy little buttonholes from the rows with chain spaces already, so it just made sense to find buttons to fit the fabric I already had. Buttons around an inch in diameter fit best.
So just like I did with the buttons for the Fundamentals Cowl, I bought two sets of buttons and tied them together to make a toggle button of sorts (scroll down to the end of the Fundamentals Cowl post to see how I make my own toggle buttons) and then all I had to do was pop them in through the four chain spaces nearest the edges and it was done!
I thought the happy little flower buttons were snicker-inducingly inappropriate for this project, too, ha ha. I mean, poor Mark! If you've been following along with my unboxing videos for this yarn club, then you probably know that I find the story of Tristan and Isolde hilariously absurd - it has been the best entertainment! But the fact that Mark just stubbornly keeps on trusting his bride and nephew absolutely blows my mind.
So this piece, in stark contrast to dear Mark, who seldom seems to be certain of anything, will most certainly, without a doubt, keep your neck warm. No red-hot iron trial required! Thus the ridiculously presumptuous name for a bit of fabric to button around one's neck.
The pattern itself includes both written instructions with stitch counts and a color coded chart, as well as photos to help illustrate working into the third loop and the stacked single crochet that is used at the beginning of double crochet rows. You will also need to know (or learn!) how to do foundation stitches, increases and decreases, and surface crochet. Tamara Kelly of MooglyBlog.com has some excellent tutorials if you need a little extra help along the way.
Here's a closer look at all those wonderful stitches!
I hope you enjoy this quick little neck wrap - and yes, it really is pretty quick; I can make one in 2-3 hours (depending on distractions, of course) and I am most certainly not a speedy crocheter! This pattern should work beautifully with any aran weight tweed yarn but you can always adjust the size by adding or subtracting fhdc stitches in multiples of three. Enjoy!
I would be remiss if I didn't also thank my pattern testers, including Emily of @emisamis and Linda Seaton Byrd - I couldn't do this without them!
The pattern for The Indubious Neck Warmer is available for purchase on Ravelry as well as Craftsy. The yarn I used was a yarn club exclusive called Mark from Round Table Yarns but she *might* have some available to dye for you if you ask her really nicely! I am hoping she'll add this one to her regular lineup, but we'll just have to wait and see!
I've also used Kathmandu Aran 100 from Queensland Collection for this piece and it worked up nicely, as well. You can see my Ravelry project page for that here.
Happy crocheting!
