Camouflage Stole Pattern

Hi, I am still here, just passing by… Thank you everyone for some really nice words on my knitting. I am slowly integrating into my new life (work consumes a LOT more time these days ;)). Never-the-less I have two completed project I have to post, but first is one of my long-overdue patterns.

Camouflage stole

This stole is perfect as a first crochet project, for someone with no crochet experience.
I have used Alize Pure Wool Cashmira yarn, which is not available in Europe and America, but you can use any variegated DK weight yarn you like and has access to. I would like to re-knit it in Noro Silk Garden, which has the same gauge as in my stole. However, stitch pattern can easily be adjusted to fit any gauge.

Because this is a very simple stitch, you can take any yarn you like and the crochet hook recommended for this yarn (usually the same as needle size) and do 9cm x 9cm gauge. For me one of the advantages of this pattern is that there is only one row to be repeated over and over again, so you can easily stop once running out of yarn.

My stole took up 830 meters/ 900 yards of yarn to get dimensions of 150cm x 40cm. I have used 3.75mm crochet hook, but up to 4.5mm is fine. If you do want to crochet it, I would strongly advise to make it 50-60cm wide.

The stitch pattern used is called Rope stitch and it was taken from the book ‘Good Housekeeping: Crochet’ printed by Ebury Press in 1981 (ISBN 0852232047).

Abbreviations:
ch = chain
lps = loops
rep = repeat
t-ch = turning chain
sp = spare
tr = treble (Make a ch row, yrh, insert into 5th ch, yrh, draw 1 loop through; yrh, draw through first 2 lps on hook, rep one more; count to end, 3 t-ch, turn, make 1 tr into 2nd st on last row)
yrh = yarn over hook

Pattern:
Make a number of ch divisible by 3, 3ch, turn
Row1: 1tr into 4th ch from hook, 1ch, 1tr into next ch, *miss 1 ch, 1tr into next ch, 1 ch into next ch, rep from * to last ch, 1 tr into last ch, 3ch, turn
Row2: (1tr, 1ch, 1tr) into each ch sp to end, 1tr into t-ch, 3ch, turn.
Repeat row 2 throughout.

When you are happy with the length of your stole you can either stop or do fringe, I really love the fringe option with this stole. Please take into account that fringe takes up a LOT of yarn! My stole is 30 patter stitch repeats wide (90sts), therefore once bound off it has 90sts to pull fringe through. Three strains of yarns (40cm long each) formed a single bundle of fringe; 45 bundles were used on each side of the stole (in every other sts)

The calculation I would recommend you to use in order to estimate the meterage/yardage is as following:

The length of the fringe (keep in mind that you will fold each strain in two once knotting it) x number of strains you want to use in each bundle (I used three to get a better colour variegation) x number of bundles you used per side) x 2 (stole has 2 sides).
e.g. for my stole I used 40x3x45x2 =108meters of yarn.

That’s it! My stole only took me a couple of evenings to crochet bearing in mind that it was my first ever crochet project. I hope you make it ;)