My First Crochet Project: A Simple Scarf
This scarf was my first ever crochet project, since I began it I've started and finished several other crochet and amigurumi projects; it's ended up taking me over a year to finish it.
When I decided to learn to crochet I started looking for a good first project, I knew I wanted something simple and practical, so that I would learn a lot and end up with something I would actually use. I'm a knitter and when learning to knit a good first project is a scarf, so when I came across this crochet scarf I thought it'd be ideal. It's essentially a big rectangle consisting of double crochet stitches (single crochet if you use US terms), which looked like a great way to practise. It's worked horizontally so you start off with a lot of chain stitches and then work back and forth across the length of the scarf in double crochet stitch.
After a frustrating start where I definitely struggled to get the hang of crochet, I eventually understood and started to make some progress. I initially thought it wouldn't take me too long to finish as it didn't look like it would take many rows, but I slowly started to realise I was completely wrong.
Spending a lot of time working on this scarf has really given me time to think about why it's not a great first project. For one thing it's way too big of a project, it takes a long time and progress is slow to see, I'm sure I could get through it a lot faster now that I'm more proficient in crochet, but for a beginner the rows really feel endless. Plus, whilst I wanted to practise double crochet stitch this was probably excessive and having some more variety in the project would've helped to keep it interesting. I think the main flaw of making this scarf as a beginner project is that where I was first learning is very visible in the finished product. You can see that one side of the scarf is much less neat and it causes the entire scarf to have a slight curve to it, which prevents it from laying flat.
Looking beyond the beginner-specific issues with this project, on the whole I don't think the finished scarf is great. As a beginner I didn't really know how the stitches would turn out, so I didn't expect the fabric to end up being so stiff. The scarf doesn't really have any drape to it, it's not soft and flexible as I would expect a scarf to be and therefore isn't very comfortable to wear. I've found that because of this it doesn't sit nicely around my neck and looks a bit odd, where it's quite obvious that it's not soft and pliable. I did add some fringe to the ends of the scarf to make it appear less rigid and I do think it has made it slightly more wearable, but wasn't really enough of a change to transform it into a great scarf.
This definitely isn't a project I would recommend to a beginner wanting to learn and practise crochet. In retrospect I should've chosen something smaller and would probably have learnt more from making several smaller projects, rather than a single large project. I think making something like a washcloth or a coaster would be a much better idea.
