The Indubious Neck Warmer

Pattern available on Ravelry and Etsy.

This design came together very organically, which I love. I've somehow never worked with a tweed yarn before, so I was pretty excited to see this bold little hank of Doubt and Suspicion from Karen Robinson of Round Table Yarns in shipment number five of the Tristan and Isolde Yarn Club.

And isn't that a great colorway name!? A muted gold with black flecks from the dye resistant nylon content, this yarn just begged for some fun black buttons.

As an aran weight yarn (a bulky 4), there is less yardage in 100g, so this quickly went from cowl to neck warmer, ha ha. But it worked out perfectly! Okay, actually the first time it didn't. I ran out of yarn with one row left and had to take it all out and make it a few stitches shorter. But THAT was perfect!

The subtle texture from working into the third loop of half double crochet stitches and a tiny bit of surface crochet along with angled edges made this just different enough to be interesting without using complicated stitches, which also allows that fun tweedy yarn to really shine. And merino wool is always fabulous, so it blocked beautifully.

And the buttons! I originally wanted to use bigger ones, but the ones I had picked out were just TOO big. And I had these handy little buttonholes from the rows with chain spaces already, so it just made sense to find buttons to fit the fabric I already had. Buttons around an inch in diameter fit best.

So just like I did with the buttons for the Fundamentals Cowl, I bought two sets of buttons and tied them together to make a toggle button of sorts (scroll down to the end of the Fundamentals Cowl post to see how I make my own toggle buttons) and then all I had to do was pop them in through the four chain spaces nearest the edges and it was done!

I thought the happy little flower buttons were snicker-inducingly inappropriate for this project, too, ha ha. I mean, poor Mark! If you've been following along with my unboxing videos for this yarn club, then you probably know that I find the story of Tristan and Isolde hilariously absurd - it has been the best entertainment! But the fact that Mark just stubbornly keeps on trusting his bride and nephew absolutely blows my mind.

So this piece, in stark contrast to dear Mark, who seldom seems to be certain of anything, will most certainly, without a doubt, keep your neck warm. No red-hot iron trial required! Thus the ridiculously presumptuous name for a bit of fabric to button around one's neck.