Crocheted Scarf

I'm at home now, crocheting socks for Kevin and a little elephant for Kavi. It's an amazingly good way to relieve election stress, because if I weren't obsessing about crocheting, I'd be reading fivethirtyeight and trying not to vomit from the terror that it may still go horribly wrong.  Kevin is NO HELP AT ALL, as he is not at all confident that Obama will win. Argh. I think he's just being a pessimist, but I'm not sure. He is almost always right about everything. (And yes, that can be a little annoying to live with.) So if he says it could go either way, well, argh!!!

Here's the scarf I just finished.  Still very much beginner work, but I like it.  I love this yarn, in gorgeous shades of purple, blue, and bits of green and brown, with a nice silky feel.  No idea what it is -- clearly, I need to start logging the yarn name, type, etc.  Also maybe what type of hook I used?  Did this with a G hook, if it matters.  The scarf is worked without a pattern, mostly in rows of 3 single crochet, 5 double crochet, 3 single crochet, although in the center, I switched to 5/5/5 for a while.  Just 'cause I felt like it.  Interest added by two other patterns, which I don't even know the name of.  Seashell and squares?  It's twenty-five stitches across.  I think I tend to work relatively tightly.  I started the scarf a while ago (eep -- 2003!), and just picked it up again recently, so can't swear to this, but I think it took me about 6 hours to make (while watching tv).

I'm really thrilled with how this came out -- if it didn't have a couple errors from way back when that I couldn't face going back, ripping out, and redoing, I'd be happy to buy this in a store for $40-$50 (if I were still a DINK (double-income-no-kids) and could justify paying that much for a scarf, that is :-).  I think this is the first scarf I've made that I could say that of; the others were functional and fine, but not especially lovely.  (Okay, this one was also nice, but I think it was notably too short; ran out of yarn.)  This one is just so pretty and silky in person; I keep wanting to wrap it around my neck, just while I'm in the house.  Hopefully the intended recipient will love it as much (and will forgive the errors, which aren't *too* bad.)

A lot of the fun of this scarf was how free-form it was; for the first half of it, I was pretty much making up the pattern as I went along, which I haven't done before -- all the afghans (two) and scarves (three) I've done before I've done pretty strictly from a pattern.  This is better!  For the second half, I did want symmetry, so then I stuck to repeating the pattern in reverse.

I realize none of this will help save the world, but I don't have the mental or physical energy at the moment to go out and volunteer (if you do, good for you, and please do, with my thanks), so instead I crochet, and it helps calm me down.  It's a small blessing, but one I'm very grateful for at the moment.