The Dragon Scale Stitch Scarf

For some reason my usual hobbies aren't quite holding my interest, so this weekend I reverted back to one that I only flirt with on occasion. 

I've been seeing photos of the Dragon Scale or Crocodile stitch floating around for a while now and I really wanted to try it, so I busted out my dusty crochet hooks and got to work. 

My first few attempts were rather messy and promptly discarded after a few rows but eventually I felt that I got the hang of it and delved into this gorgeous jewel tone skein that I picked up just for this project.

Lion Brand Landscapes: Apple Orchard

Each row of this pattern is worked in two steps: The first is the post stitches that form the solid foundation for the scales and the second is the scales.

 The biggest issue I had with this pattern is that I couldn't get the scales to lay flat. If you look at the bottom five rows or so, you can see that they curl up and are slightly misshapen. I had initially thought that this was due to needing more practice but after a few rows, it wasn't getting any better.

First scarf section, approximately 10" x 7"

I was able to mostly fix this after some research by changing the way I did the post stitches. After stitching the first row of scales, turn the project so that the back is facing you and work the next row of post stitches right to left from the back. Flip it back to the front to work the scales, again right to left. I don't know why this worked but it did.

This pattern EATS yarn like crazy; I used up the entire skein of yarn (150 yards) yesterday and only got about ten inches of scarf out of it, so I'll need to pick up four or five more to make a decent length scarf. It's a very dense pattern, heavy and sturdy feeling, and will probably be very warm and toasty. If I was to make a whole blanket (60" x 70") using this particular brand of yarn (which is honestly soft and smooth and a joy to work with), I calculate that it would require about 60 skeins or 9,000 yards of yarn. o_O Time to dig up those JoAnn's Coupons.

I've included the short video I watched on how to do this stitch. It was much more helpful than reading the patterns.