2023 - We're up to our necks in scarves!

My 2023 blog theme is crochet for necks. This obviously means scarves but also I might do ties, necklaces or collars. If this category becomes a pain in the neck I may switch to something else partway through the year. 

I've been looking at vintage scarf/neck patterns and while I have a lot of them in my library many of them are patterns I don't want to make. Here are the types of things I'm ruling out (at least for now):

• Really, really big scarves. Hats are quick to make so making a hat a week was pretty easy to fit in with the other projects but a big scarf will take a lot longer and might not be interesting enough to justify the extra time.
• Very simple patterns. Making a scarf in all double crochet isn't very interesting and I wouldn't have that much to talk about so I'm trying to find some options that are a little bit unique.
• Scarves with tiny motifs. I don't really like sewing motifs together so if it's a tiny motif (I found one with 3 inch granny squares) and the pattern asks me to make and sew 72 of them together that's going to rule that pattern out.

Rating the neck adornments will be a little harder than the hats. A scarf is more of a one size fits all sort of items so "does it fit?" won't be a criteria. Here are the things I'll try to use for ratings:

• Is the pattern easy to understand?
• If there is a gauge, could I match it?
• Does it look like the photo?
• Would someone wear this?

I have about 35-40 patterns I've marked as possibilities and that might be enough to get me through the year. The three I have queued up for January are from 1937, 1970 and 1977. Next week I'll have the 1970 pattern from a booklet I made some hats out of already. 

A scarf made in all double crochet. I'm not going to make this one.