I’ve seen some very nice scarves made from alpaca using a double-ended crochet hook. In fact, some of my handspun has ended up in such scarves. I’ve wanted to try the technique for a number of years, but I’ve never gotten around to doing so – until yesterday.

Part of the problem was the lack of double-ended crochet hook. I found a size I circular crochet hook on clearance last week and purchased it at a good price.

Next came the search for yarn. I wanted to practice with some cheap, Walmart, acrylic, but none of my junk acrylic made the move from Oregon. I visited a yarn store, but I just didn’t find a yarn that begged for the project. Two options remained. First, was to knit from my stash. Second was to spin up some yarn especially for the project. I started sorting through the stash looking for an excuse to spin …

And I found some yarn that would work.

Double-ended crochet technique generally uses two strands of yarn. (One can crochet a circle or spiral with an ordinary hook unlike in knitting where a circular needle or multiple dpns are required.) I decided to work with one strand from my jumbo cone of unknown very light weight millspun alpaca and one ball of single ply handspun alpaca. Unfortunately, the pictures don’t do the colors justice because I had my choice of indoor lighting or flash when the pictures were taken.

Here is the scarf so far

I’m finding the technique a little challenging and I really hope the live end of the scarf has the same number of stitches on it as the starting end does. The hook is greatly oversized for the yarn and I’m having problems with tension. The yarn – especially the very fine millspun thread – tends to draw up into little tiny knots instead of staying in big loops. When these little tiny knots are created, I find it very difficult to get the vastly oversized hook into the loop for the next stitch. Use of the oversize hook is intentional as I am trying to create a very open fabric. The trick is not to overtension the yarn and draw the loops tighter after they’re off the hook. (The size C hook I used on the previous hat and scarf is oversized for the millspun – the double-ended hook is size I yet the yarn is the same.)

I’m also having some difficulty figuring out where the edges of the fabric are. This means I’m tending to add stitches – except when I drop them.

Even so, I’m liking what I am making and enjoying the new technique.