Pattern:

I have been after a rounded hood pattern for ages as I dislike pointy hoods. This pattern was mostly easy to follow and resulted in a nice rounded hood shape.
However I did find the foundationless treble (US dc) difficult because I don’t hold my crochet like the designer (like a conductor waving a baton at the yarn, which is stretched upwards. Looks very uncomfortable! I hold my work and hook more like a knitter, with the yarn staying low). As a result, it was difficult to complete the stitch as demonstrated on the video (it made my hands hurt!), and resulted in a too-tight first row. Because of this issue, I just worked a normal chain and stitched the first row into the back bumps to get a nice edge.

I did not SEW the hood and scarf together as the pattern dictates, but crocheted the scarf to the hood in the centre of the last row of the scarf, using slip stitches and treble (US dc) decreases. This worked well. I always prefer to join using crochet where possible. Pictures of the stitch and result are attached to this project.

Yarn:

I am really disappointed with the substituted yarn. Cleckheaton Artisan (we can’t get Lion here, as far as I know). Whilst the yarn looks pretty, it is still quite ‘rough’ even after using a little conditioner in the final rinse. It also ended up with a stripy effect, rather than a nice smoosh of mixed colours, which was what I was after.

Ravelry:

A further note about Ravelry’s yarn info: I think the prescribed Lion yarn must actually be 14 ply, not 12 ply as indicated on Ravelry, as the substituted yarn didn’t ‘work’ with the prescribed 6.5 mm hook. I ended up using a 5.5 mm for all but the initial chain, and I also had to extend the pattern considerably with more chains and more rows. This is why, for international consistency, Ravelry and yarn manufacturers should use standard ‘ply equivalent’ measures, not words like ‘bulky’ which are meaningless unless you have some kind of comparative measure. WPI is no use as we haven’t used inches here since the 1970s (it only remains in general use in the US).

I have now made a more successful attempt using a softer 14 ply yarn. See ‘Hooded scarf No 2’ in my list of projects.