A few years ago I fell in love with the Grannies Paperweight crochet pattern (otherwise known as the African Flower pattern), and I thought it would be the perfect project to make using tapestry wool as that seems to come in a million and one different colours (certainly a wider range than most wool companies produce.)

Inspired a little by memories of buying a 1/4 of fair rock from the shop down the road when I was small (sadly an old time sweet that doesn’t seem to have been resurected), those beautiful millefleur paperweights that you often find in antique centres and sumptously embroidered velvet collars on evening coats designed by Paul Poiret, I’ve designed this scarf so you can wrap yourself all up in every colour under the sun and then some.

Although you don’t have to use tapestry wool (indeed if I had the budget I’d use Jamieson’s of Shetland or Jamieson and Smith as both their colour range is breathtaking) I found it a lot more affordable than you’d think.

Most of the wool used has been sourced from Antique shops/flea markets/ jumble sales/ charity shops/car boots….very little has been purchased new.

Certain vintage brands like Penelope or Beehive are slightly fuzzy and I think these work best either for round three or for joining the hexagons together.

Anchor, DMC and Rowan are plumper and seem to work better on the other rounds.

If you live in America then you should be able to source “Elsa Williams” needlepoint yarn (I was lucky to buy some a few years ago via Ebay)…this is a really nice wool, perfect for all the rounds.

I found it easier to use two different hook sizes. A 4mm for the first 3 rounds and then a 3.25mm hook for the last two rounds. As well as changing hook size I also changed the type of hook…Clover Soft Touch for the4mm hook and then I changed to a Brittany wooden hook for the 3.25.

I’ve linked on my blog all the stages to making the scarf, I’ve taken a fair few pictures so the scarf instructions go over a couple of posts as the half hexagons needed for the sides are made a little bit different to the whole hexagons.

Also, I learnt how to make and join together whole hexagons by following the brilliant tutorials by HeidiBears and so I link to those as I don’t think they can be beaten.

Regarding edging, I found Jamieson and Smith double knit wool was perfect as it was almost the same weight as the tapestry wool.

The scarf has two “pointy” ends which I think would look fantastic finished with super fat pom poms (however my boyfriend has very somber tastes and I think pom poms would be the very end of enough for him.)

My scarf has been made with 43 whole hexagons and 26 half hexagons.

Regarding yardage, I’ve used approximately 948 yards for the hexagons, however I didn’t measure the wool for the edging but one ball of Jamieson’s of Shetland dk wool will be more than enough.

While I appreciate that there is a way where you can work your woolly tails in while you crochet (and save yourself the what seems like an endless amount of time sewing in umpteen ends) whenever I try to do it that way my crochet looks all lumpy and mis-shapen….so I’m a woolly tail sewer, but if you can do it the other way, then go ahead as it will save you a lot of time.

My hexagons are made up of 5 rounds, each round has 2 ends or tails so 10 per hexagon (even the halfs which doesn’t really seem fair) so that’s 690 woolly tails to sew in when you’re all finished.

Please understand, this isn’t a weekend make, it’s going to take a while (I started mine in the Spring of 2013 or thereabouts and though I wasn’t working on it all the time it still took a fair amount of time) but I think it’s worth it.