Blood Scarf

Watching marathons of themed movies is one of my all time favorite things to do.  I am one of those who can sit for hours on end watching movies.  It doesn't even bother me if they're basically the same movie.  Take Manhunter/Red Dragon.  Most of you have probably heard of Red Dragon, it's the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs and stars Edward Norton.  What many people do not know is that it is also a remake.  The original was made in 1986 and starred William Petersen of CSI fame.  Any way, they are more or less the same movie.  Some remakes have big changes, like Arthur for instance.  This one, not so much.  The scripts are virtually identical, which is kinda trippy if you watch them back to back.  That's the kind of thing I do.  A normal weekend for me usually involves watching a cluster of "linked" movies like Manhunter-Red Dragon-Silence of the Lambs-Hannibal.  Depending on when I start watching movies and if I still have time after the initial marathon, like if I start in the morning, I might then jump to another movie with a connecting theme, in that set it would be Anthony Hopkins in Bram Stoker's Dracula (sadly, I don't have many of his movies), which could lead to watching any other "linked" like Beetlejuice/Edward Scissor Hands (Wynona Rider), The Matrix (Keanu Reeves), The Princess Bride/Robin Hood: Men in Tights (Cary Elwes) or, if I go theme, eating people for instance, instead of actors it would lead me down a vampire track since, for some reason, I don't have any zombie movies. An so on, and on until bed time. 

Amazingly, I still get things done on weekends.  Part of the reason for the endless stream of movies is noise.  I've seen so many movies so many times that I don't really have to pay attention to them and so can do other things simultaneously with the TV talking at me for company.  If I don't have chores to do I usually knit or crochet which leads me to one of the more interesting aspects of my movie obsession.  I get a lot of inspiration from movies.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, my Signature Scarf was created while watching The Crow and my pumpkin head scarecrow is a dead ringer for the one in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow.  In this latest case, I was watching anything that might fit a Halloween theme.  I was surprised, the first three were all Disney flicks (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Hocus Pocus, and The Haunted Mansion) from there I went with some Addams Family.  The Addams Family was the one that really got me though.  The scene where Wednesday and Pugsly are performing Shakespeare and they start slicing off limbs, spraying the audience with 'blood' in the process set off a light bulb in my head (a long lead-in, I know, but I'm getting to the point now).  I needed festive Halloween neck ware and I needed it now.  And neck + blood = vampires in my book.  So, I set out to create an appropriately gory scarf. 

Sadly, this one had to be piece work.  Oh, how I loathe piece work.  Alas that it was the best option.  Since I had no choice, I made the piecing as easy as humanly possible because there is quite a bit of it (sorry about that).  If it gives you hope, I was able to make this in less than 5 days working mostly during my lunch break.  I named it simply the Blood Scarf because I'm horribly opinionated about all things vampire, though I am by no means an aficionado of the genera, and I refuse to tie it to any specific franchise.  Any similarly themed things will be the same.  Just 'blood' or 'vampire,' no names!  So, here you are.  The brain child of my incessant movie watching.  My apologies for the darkness of the initial photo.  The only mirrors I have are in bathrooms and my bathrooms have enough light for people, not photography.  This scarf looked impressive enough that I wanted to give you a look at it on a person though, and I think you'll agree that it looks far more impressive that way even if the image is a little dark.

Blood Scarf

Caron Simply Soft 2 1/2 ounces, about 140 yards.
G hook

Special Stitches

Ddtc- wrap yarn 4 times around hook, insert into stitch, pull through, and work the remaining loops as you would any dc/tc/dtc.

Foundation single crochet (fsc) or double chain stitch: We won't be doing this from the normal starting point of chain 2. This is the adaptation used for this particular pattern.  When working the very first fsc at the top of each drop, work as a single crochet through the center of the ddtc top and through the post at the top of the stitch (see image).  Then work the 'normal' fsc as follows. Keep the point of the blood drop up, the top of the first fsc will face your right hand.  Insert the hook through the center of the first fsc, to the left of the top of the stitch, and work 1 sc around the single strand that runs horizontally.  For another point of reference, the horizontal thread is the thread that makes the loop that is around the hook.  Continue in this manner until you have the desired number of fsc stitches, counting the first one.

Start of the first foundation single crochet

Blood drop pattern:
Ch 3.  In first chain work 6 dc , 1tc, 1dtc.  Then work one ddtc in the top of the chain 3.  Work fsc as directed.  The blood drops have a tendency to curl.  I like the effect, but if you don't it can be removed by blocking.  In the image to the right you can see the difference between curled drops on the sides and the flat ones in the center

Scarf Base:
Work one blood drop pattern, fsc the desired length of the finished scarf.  Mine was 65 inches not counting the blood drop, if yours is longer or shorter you will need more or fewer blood drops, respectively.  Mark the center of the fsc rope (don't count the drop on the end) with a spare bit of yarn or stitch marker.

Make 1 blood drop with no fsc.  Instead, break off leaving a long tail to sew with.


Blood drops, make 52
Work the blood drop pattern ending with 9 fsc.  Bind of and break the yarn leaving a tail long enough to sew with.

 Assembly

To place the first blood drop, lay it next to the one on the end of the scarf base, then raise it about an inch (2 1/2 to 3 cm) higher.  Using the tail, sew the blood drop to the scarf base.  Repeat this process until you reach the center marker.  Sew the blood drop with no fsc to the terminal end of the scarf base, then repeat the placement process that you used on the first side of the scarf.