How to crochet a colourful striped scarf

Got a Scheepjes colour pack you don’t know what to do with? Advent minis? Yarn leftovers? Why don’t you crochet a colourful striped scarf with them!?

There is a magical place, that feels like my spiritual home, called The Crochet Sanctuary, that I almost don’t want to talk about because it’s really in demand and you have to be speedy to book a place. But it’s also so amazing that every crocheter should experience it, so if you’re not already familiar, click here to visit The Crochet Sanctuary website.

I was lucky enough to have a place in November 2022, for the Christmas themed Crochet Sanctuary, and our gift under the tree was a Scheepjes Stone Washed / River Washed Colour Pack (you can get one at Black Sheep Wools). It was our Friday night project, with patterns to make gorgeous tree decorations which I will definitely make for next year. It was so exciting to receive and open the pack, I’ve never had one before, so I wanted to make something out of all of it, rather than breaking into just some of the colours.

To start with, my Sanctuary buddy, Jess of hook&cwtch who happens to be a colour expert, arranged all those little balls into this lovely colour wash order. That was fully beyond my skillset so I was very grateful and duly pencilled the number order on to all of the ball bands, in case they were accidentally knocked, or moved around in the car on the way home, or if I dropped the box on the way back to my hotel room after I’d had a few.

After a bit of trial and error, lots of undoing and redoing, which was all part of the fun playing round with these gorgeous little yarn balls, I came up with…

Scheepjes Stone Washed / River Washed Colour Pack Claire’smadeit Colourful Striped Scarf

This is a flexible pattern you could adapt to suit any yarn you wish to use. Obviously your crochet tension will alter the finished result. Full disclosure, I don’t know whether the festive tipples were affecting my crochet powers but for some colours I had a fair length of yarn left at the end, and others I totally ran out and had to undo and redo the last row a bit tighter. So be as pedantic as you like (or don’t) and with all that in mind, here’s what I did:

DETAILS

I used all 58 balls of the Scheepjes colour pack – 580g of sport weight and a 3.5mm crochet hook
The finished item is a parallelogram 48cm wide and 260cm approx long point to point (massive!)
The stitches were half trebles (hdc in US terms) and my gauge is about 18 stitches and 14 rows to 10cm

HOW TO CROCHET A COLOURFUL STRIPED SCARF

My rows were 114 stitches in half treble crochet – I crocheted into the back bumps of the starting chain so the edges would match

On one side of the scarf all rows started or ended with an increase, on the other edge all rows started or ended with a decrease, this creates the slanted rows of the parallelogram

Each stripe was 4 rows, apart from the very first stripe which was just three rows (because of the yarn used for the starting chain) and the last so that it matched

I added a new colour by pulling up the new yarn to complete the stitch of the previous row and started each row with a turning chain of 3

The first row of each new stripe I worked in the back loops only, to make it look a bit fancier

The second row of each stripe I did a little eyelet pattern. After the increase or decrease I repeated [htr, chain 1 and skip a stitch] ending with a htr and the increase or decrease

Up to you whether you work the ends in as you go or leave them all til the end to sew in as you regret your life choices

I hope that all makes sense along with the photos!

COLOUR ORDER

If you want to use the beautiful colour wash designed by Jess, here are the shades in order:

1. Stone Washed Moon Stone – 801
2. Stone Washed Axinite – 831
3. Stone Washed Crystal Quartz – 814
4. Stone Washed Smokey Quartz – 802
5. Stone Washed Black Onyx – 803
6. Stone Washed Obsidian – 829
7. Stone Washed Brown Agate – 822
8. Stone Washed Boulder Opal – 804
9. River Washed Severn – 953
10. River Washed Murray – 960
11. Stone Washed Yellow Jasper – 809
12. Stone Washed Enstatite – 832
13. Stone Washed Beryl – 833
14. Stone Washed Citrine – 817
15. River Washed Ural – 44
16. River Washed Seine – 947
17. River Washed Amazon – 951
18. Stone Washed Canada Jade – 806
19. Stone Washed Lemon Quartz – 812
20. Stone Washed Peridot – 827
21. River Washed Narmada – 962
22. River Washed Congo – 954
23. River Washed Po – 955
24. Stone Washed New Jade – 819
25. Stone Washed Fosterite – 826
26. Stone Washed Malachite – 825
27. Stone Washed Larimar – 828
28. Stone Washed Amazonite – 813
29. Stone Washed Green Agate – 815
30. Stone Washed Turquoise – 824
31. River Washed Tiber – 958
32. River Washed Danube – 948
33. River Washed Rhine – 952
34. Stone Washed Blue Apatite – 805
35. River Washed Wheaton – 950
36. River Washed Yarra – 949
37. River Washed Colorado – 941
38. River Washed Steenbras – 942
39. River Washed Ganges – 945
40. River Washed Eisack – 957
41. Stone Washed Garnet – 810
42. Stone Washed Corundum Ruby – 808
43. Stone Washed Lepidolite – 830
44. Stone Washed Deep Amethyst – 811
45. Stone Washed Lilac Quartz – 818
46. Stone Washed Rose Quartz – 820
47. Stone Washed Tourmaline – 836
48. River Washed Mekong – 943
49. Stone Washed Rhodochrosite – 835
50. Stone Washed Red Jasper – 807
51. Stone Washed Carnelian – 823
52. River Washed Mississippi – 964
53. River Washed Avon – 956
54. River Washed Nile – 944
55. River Washed Mersey – 961
56. Stone Washed Coral – 816
57. Stone Washed Morganite – 834
58. Stone Washed Pink Quartzite – 821

I am so pleased with the finished item. It’s lovely and warm and, possibly because it has 58 different colours and is massive and they feel compelled to, people are giving me lots of nice compliments. Further benefits are the interwoven memories of a brilliant weekend at the Sanctuary. And not having to find somewhere to hide another box of yarn in the spare room.

Let me know if you make one! Tag me on Instagram @clairesmadeit

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