Tripping The Light Fantascot

In the space between Christmas and the New Year I found a fantastic, easy-to-make and quick-to-complete hooky project - Tracy St John's "Fantascot" pattern which you can download for free here. (And while you're at it, check out her fabulously bright and cheerful "Groovyghan" pattern too.) Leslie of Crochetbug gave me the idea for making a Fantascot with the gorgeous version she made for her mother before Christmas. You can see it at its finish here (rather more professionally hooked than mine, I freely confess).  The Fantascot sounds more like a dance step than a crochet pattern but a delightful hooky pattern is what it is, for a patchwork of crochet made using various stitches in a range of motifs and panels that are then sewn or crocheted together to make a snuggly, neck-warming cowl. Like all the best design ideas, Tracy St John's design is essentially simple but beautifully effective.

It's designed to use lots of colours and you could easily conjure it up, I suspect, out of oddments left over from other projects. I did not do this, I am afraid. Before Christmas I bought some beautiful Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in a range of colours, that supplemented a handful I had already, and I deliberately saved starting the project until that lovely lull that happens between Christmas and the New Year when there was space to savour every hooky stitch.

I had a little play around with my watercolour pencils to sketch out a design that I thought would achieve a balance of the colours I had, but regarded this as a guide rather than a constraint and I am rather pleased with the result. It would make an excellent project for someone relatively new to crocheting as the techniques required, apart from the Catherine Wheel panel which is slightly trickier, are straightforward and each section is relatively small to complete.

You could also easily swap or repeat a panel if any particular one proved too complicated.

The Debbie Bliss Aran is a thicker weight yarn than that specified and I had to use a bigger hook - a 5mm one as opposed to a 3.5 mm - so my Fantascot is a bit bigger than the pattern indicates but not much. I compensated by reducing the depth of the border and omitting the edging on one or two of the panels and it's worked beautifully - bright, warm and cosy and very enjoyable to hook up.

Although the Catherine Wheel stitch took a little fathoming out, it proved rather addictive and given half a chance I could have gone on Catherine-wheeling for some considerable time once I'd got the hang of how it went! Isn't it fun?

I love the patchwork effect all the different panels make.

It's proved very wearable

and has sparked off all sorts of possibilities in my head for using the motifs and stitches in other projects.

If you are in the UK you may well find yourself a trifle snow-bound today. It is blowing a blizzard here as I write and three inches or so have fallen and settled since first thing this morning. I shall certainly not be going anywhere by car today, I can see. May just have to go out and throw a snowball or two in keeping with my "Vive la joie!" motto for this year though! And if I hadn't already made a Fantascot it would be the perfect hooky project to curl up with while the snow quietly swirls and settles driftily outside.

Stay cosy, if you have snow!

E x