Aaaand, I’m back with a new design in a gorgeous new yarn by Scheepjes.  Diversion is a wide asymmetric crochet scarf, worked on the bias using bold colours.  I hope the colours make you smile so wide that you feel a pinch in your cheeks!

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Diversion
Noun
1. the action of turning something aside from its course.
2. an activity that diverts the mind from tedious or serious concerns; a recreation or pastime.

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This will be a long-ish post, so I am going to break it up into ‘The Chatty Bit’ and ‘The Pattern’.  If you want to jump straight to the pattern, just click on the link below.

Index

• The Chatty Bit
• Diversion Scarf Pattern

The Chatty Bit

The first half of the scarf was inspired by Bridget Riley’s 1990 Oil on Canvas painting entitled Shadow Play.

The second half was inspired by her 1982 Oil on Linen painting called Cool Edge.

I love geometric patterns.  Especially stripe work.  Extra especially diagonal stripe work.  So when I saw those paintings, it inspired me to make a crude little drawing of a scarf in one of my MANY design journals.  That was four years ago!

I forgot all about it until I received a sample of the new Terrazzo yarn by Scheepjes.

I’ll write a detailed post about the yarn next week (there are SO MANY beautiful colours), but for now, you just need to know that it is a gorgeous double-knit yarn made from 70% recycled mulesing free wool and 30% recycled viscose.  And it has the loveliest little coloured flecks running through it.

As soon as I received the yarn, I whipped out my journal and started swatching.  I decided to go for a simple textured stitch because I thought the scarf would be too busy if I used bold colours AND complex stitch patterns/designs.  I also didn’t want to detract from the beauty of the yarn.

I had a lot of fun researching textured stitches, but as I tried each one with the recommended 4mm hook, I realised that the combination of my tight crocheting and the hook was yielding a fabric that was too stiff for the scarf.  Using a bigger hook with the textured stitches made them lose their definition, though.

So I started playing around with chains and single crochets in various configurations – you’d be surprised how many ways you can combine sc/sc2tog/2sc/ch-1 to achieve different looks.  It was a brilliant exercise in thinking outside the box, let me tell you.

In the end, the simplest solution proved to be my favourite.  Well, the simplest would have been the linen stitch, but although I LOVE the linen stitch, using it with the larger hook made the texture ‘too holey’.  Instead, I settled on the linen stitch’s twin sister.  It is PERFECT!  A lovely woven/block texture (without big holes) that compliments the yarn really really well.  I couldn’t find any reference to this stitch online, so I’m going to call it ‘Offset Linen Stitch’.  It’s a little bit tricky getting used to where to insert your hook, but once you get the hang of it, it flows really quickly.

I enjoyed every single moment of this project.  I wish I could convey to you how much fun I had making this scarf!  Within 10 days of receiving the yarn, I’d written the pattern, completed the scarf, and taken all the photos.

It has been so long since a project skipped so effortlessly out of my mind.  I LOVED the simplicity of the stitch combination, and I had that giddy ‘just one more row’ affliction as I raced towards each colour change.

When I started this scarf, my mind was in a very weird place, and working on it reminded me of the benefits (to your soul) of creating something simple with your hands so that your mind has the space to sort itself out.  It was the perfect diversion.

I ended up with enough yarn left over to make some matching wrist-warmers, so if you are interested in those, I will be sharing the pattern for them in a fortnight.

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Diversion Scarf Pattern

© Dedri Uys and Scheepjes 2022.  All Rights Reserved.

Resources

• Dutch Translation by Scheepjes
• Add to your Ravelry Queue
• Hashtag:  If you share photos, please use #diversionscarf so that we can find your projects and have a gleeful look.

Abbreviations

US Terminology (US/UK Conversion Chart)

• Ch – Chain
• Hdc – Half-double crochet
• Sc – Single crochet
• Sc2tog – Single crochet 2 together
• Sp/sps – Space/spaces
• St/sts – Stitch/stitches

Punctuation

() – Repeat instructions between parentheses the number of times specified

[] – Square brackets are used to indicate stitches made into the same st/sp

Materials

• Scheepjes Terrazzo (70% recycled mulesing free wool,30% recycled viscose; 50g/175m/191yds)
  • Yarn A – 751 x 1 ball (Blue)
  • Yarn B – 707 x 1 ball (Green)
  • Yarn C – 702 x 1 ball (Yellow)
  • Yarn D – 714 x 1 ball (Light Pink)
  • Yarn E – 721 x 1 ball (Dark Pink)
  • Yarn F – 729 x 1 ball (Purple)
  • Yarn G – 740 x 2 balls (Grey)
• 5mm hook

Yarn Packs for this colourway are now available from my Wool Warehouse Shop.  Packs include a printed copy of the pattern.  You can also buy the individual balls of Terrazzo on Wool Warehouse or from other Scheepjes Stockists HERE.

Useful Information:  I used 28g for the first 20 rows (including the starting chain), and roughly 26g for each subsequent 20-row repeat.  I had approximately 13g of each of Yarn A – F left, and 25g of Yarn G.

Gauge

Per 10cm/4” square, using textured stitch as in pattern:

• 11 (sc, ch-1) pairs
• 19 rows

Size

60cm/23.6” wide x 180cm/70.8” long

Notes

Texture/Stitch Anatomy

When making this scarf, you will ONLY be working into the sc sts, not into the ch-1 sps.  Make sure that you are identifying your stitches correctly.  You should end up with a woven/block texture.

If your work looks more like this (linen stitch below), you are working into the ch-1 sps.  If you do this, not only will your texture be wrong, but the slant of the scarf will be affected.

It will take you a few rows to get used to the rhythm of working into the sc sts instead of the ch-1 sps, but once you get used to it, it flows really well!

Changing Colours

Change colours on the last yarn-over of the last st before the colour change, following the colour chart supplied below.

Tips

• If you put your work down in the middle of a row, always end with a ch-1 so that you know, when you pick it back up again, that you can just start with a sc in the next sc.
• Don’t accidentally stop before the last st of the previous row. This is especially easily done on uneven rows.  It happened to me!

Chart

Colour Chart

Instructions

To Start:  Ch 132.

Row 1:  Sc in the second ch from the hook.  (Ch 1, skip the next ch, sc in the next ch) until no more sts remain, turn.  {65 ch-1 sps, 66 sc}

Row 2:  Ch 2 (counts as hdc throughout), skip the next ch-1 sp.  (Sc in the next st, ch 1, skip the next ch-1 sp) until 1 st remains.  [Sc, 2 hdc] in the last st, turn.  {64 ch-1 sps, 65 sc, 3 hdc}

Row 3:  Ch 1 (doesn’t count as a st throughout), sc in the first hdc, ch 1, skip the next hdc.  (Sc in the next st, ch 1, skip the next ch-1 sp) until 2 sts remain.  Sc2tog over the last 2 sts, turn.  {65 ch-1 sps, 66 sc}

Rows 4 – 239:  Repeat Rows 2 and 3, changing colours as indicated in the chart.

Row 240:  Ch 2, skip next ch-1 sp.  (Sc in next sc, ch- 1, skip next ch-1 sp) until 1 st rem.  [sc, 2 hdc] in last st.  Fasten off and work away ends.  {64 ch-1 sps, 65 sc, 3 hdc}

Blocking

The edges of the scarf will curl slightly.  To rectify this, I suggest giving your scarf a light steam blocking once completed, making sure that you do not touch the surface of the work with your iron when you do so.

I would like to thank Scheepjes for supplying lovely styled photos of the scarf, and for providing the Dutch translation.

This blog post contains affiliate links. I only link to products I personally use or would use.  All opinions are my own.