I recently had the opportunity to spend some time working on a crochet scarf kit from We Are Knitters as well as the luxury of playing with a little bit of their soft baby alpaca yarn. Let me share …
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Everything arrived quickly in a box with no unnecessary wasteful packaging. The crochet kit comes inside of a paper bag that includes an encouraging reminder to re-use the bag instead of throwing it away.
I had requested extra baby alpaca yarn that was so luscious I just wanted to set it on my desk to touch it periodically before turning it into something. So I began by working on my crochet kit.
We Are Knitters has a variety of crochet kits ranging from bikinis to cardigans. I chose one for a cozy-looking scarf called the Acari Scarf.
The kit comes with the crochet pattern, the yarn required (you choose your color when you order, mine is natural), a wooden crochet hook in the proper size, a tapestry needle for weaving in ends and a We Are Knitters label to affix to your end product.
The crochet pattern is a simple pamphlet that opens up to two pages of written instruction. This includes stitch instruction, row-by-row instructions, finishing instructions, information about the yarn and how to find We Are Knitters online and/ or share your makes on social media. On the back of the pamphlet is a simple schematic showing size (this would be more important on a complex garnet pattern) along with a symbol chart for the pattern. The pattern instructions were easy for me to follow and seemed par-for-the-course compared to other crochet kits I’ve worked with in the past.
The yarn for this crochet project is The Merino Superwash Wool. It’s a terrific representation of this kind of yarn.
See, lusciously squishy. Each ball is 218 yards of yarn, and it appears to be a worsted weight, so that is a nice amount of yardage for creating your projects.
The crochet scarf has a simple two-row repeat, that I ended up really loving. I had never completed this stitch pattern before. The pattern calls it “star stitch” but it’s unlike any star stitch I’ve ever worked. It is a combination of what I know as single crochet mesh stitch and narrow double crochet fans.
Whatever it may or may not be called, I think it’s a truly beautiful stitch that I also found meditative to work.
It is especially nice to work this stitch in this merino wool because it is so cozy to the touch!
There is the close-up of the finished project. The label is included; this is a nice way to spread the word to the world about the We Are Knitters company if you want to support them. Of course, this scarf was crocheted, not knitted, so it would be nice if there was a label option that said “proudly crocheted by myself”.
Another look at the finished scarf. I actually chose not to make mine as long as the pattern suggested. I also didn’t use their finishing technique, because I tend to prefer infinity scarves over full-length scarves. So I used two of the three balls of yarn they sent and made a shorter version for myself. I’ll definitely be using that extra ball of yarn for something cozy; maybe something to match the scarf.
And of course I still have the two balls of baby alpaca yarn that came in addition to the crochet kit. This is 100% baby alpaca yarn, which has always been my favorite yarn because it is so soft. This is high quality yummy yarn.
Seriously I just love this yarn. These are 50 gram balls, I’m not sure of yardage. This is a worsted weight yarn although it seems lighter than the merino. I haven’t decided what special thing I want to use it for, though.
I have played around with it a little bit. I tried working with it double-stranded. I loved the texture and plush softness that this offered. I also liked the almost-tweed look it created. However, after making a few more rows, I realized that it looked too much like bacon because of my color choices. (I chose wine and beige; they are both beautiful colors, just not right together for me in the stitch I was using.)
So I frogged the double strand (the yarn frogs easily) and I did a little bit of crochet seed stitch in the wine color. This yarn lends itself well to a closed textured stitch. In fact, it would probably look good in the Acari Scarf Kit stitch above, so now I’m thinking that I might combine the two balls of baby alpaca with the one leftover merino wool and use that same stitch pattern to create a hat or fingerless gloves to go with the scarf. Whatever I decide to do with it, you’ll surely find me posting about it on Instagram. And stay tuned here to the blog for an interview with founders of We Are Knitters
In the meantime, use this coupon code to get 15% off of your We Are Knitters order: KVERCILLOWAK (valid through 10/31/16)
