 Welcome to Start a Skull Crochet. My name is Tasha. Today's tutorial is going to be the Mandala Infinity Scarf or Mandala, however you like to say it. This scarf is really great. It comes with a lot of really neat stitches, front post stitches, working in the front loops and the back loops and the third loops. So you'll have a lot of fun learning new techniques if you don't already know those with this scarf. I'm rebooting it, making it free, and also I changed up the color a little bit for this one. And this color I'm using here is the baby yarn by Mandala, Lion Brand. And it's, you get at 590 yards. It takes up one entire cake for this and it's 100% acrylic. I'm using, it's a three-way yarn but we're going to do a plying technique called Navajo Plying where you make your thin yarn chunky. And I'm using a 6.5 millimeter hook. So this pattern works in multiples of two or any even number of chains to start. But for this pattern we're going to start off with a half double crochet, I'm sorry, a foundation half double crochet. Actually my written pattern calls to chain 210. So you go ahead and chain 210 and you can pause the video. I'll put the little icon up there for pausing it. Or you can do a foundation, foundation row of half double crochets. I did 210 for the one pictured in my sample. But for this tutorial I'm probably going to chain about 20 and we'll go from there. Okay so we're going to start off making our thin yarn chunky and that's going to be something that's going to kind of go without throughout the pattern. It turns this three-way yarn into a five-way. So to do that you kind of create an S with your yarn. There's several different ways to do it but this is the way I do it. So you just kind of create an S like this giant S pattern and then you're going to scoop up three strands of the S and it creates a loop down here on the bottom. So you can just let that other piece kind of go. Then you take this loop here and you're going to make your slipknot with all three of those loops. So kind of go back down your down a little bit. Create your slipknot however you like to create your slipknot and it can be a little weird at first because you want to make sure you get through all three of those pieces of yarn and leave enough tail to weave in which I don't think I did. So I might redo that. So then if you didn't do that and you didn't leave enough tail just stretch this out just a little bit more make it longer like that. That's a little bit longer. So you're going to grab up these three pieces where your tail is basically and then I'm going to go ahead and make my slipknot. This is how I do my slipknot. Just kind of grab it bring it on up through. I guess I didn't leave much of a tail either for that but it's okay because this is just a tutorial. Okay so there I have my slipknot. So what you do first is you're going to chain 210 or any even number of chains. For this tutorial I'm going to chain 20 and you're going to use all three strands of your yarn so you're you're bringing all three strands together and that's how it makes turns it into a chunky yarn. So there I have three and I could feel already that I'm getting towards the end of where my loop's going to turn back into one. So what you do there is you take this the piece attached to your yarn and just pull it through, pull it through the loop there. So I'm going to put it right here and just kind of grab it like that and pull it through and you're going to do that throughout your pattern because that's how you make your thick yarn or your thin yarn thick and it creates a little bit of a knot like a tie right there but it disappears within the pattern. So I've got four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. I'm going to do 16. So there I have 16 and here we're going to join our two pieces together. So I usually like to lay mine with the flat side, put my fingers on the bumpy side and then kind of bring it up like that. And so we're going to go into the first chain with a slip stitch and then make sure there's no kind of twists in your chain. So for the row, the first row round, sorry I always do that, we're going to chain two and we're going to work straight into that join where we joined. My yarn is catching on something. So we're going to work a half double crochet in that same join and then we're also going to work a half double crochet around the entire length of the pattern. So for 210 that's going to take quite a while for you guys. So pause the video and then come back when you're finished with your 210 half double crochets. And I have 16 so I'll be back faster than you. Okay so here I've completed my 16 all the way to the end and I'm going to join into the chain. So we're going to join into the top of the chain too which is right there. You guys can see the yarn. And since we're joining into the chains, your first stitch is always going to be your first stitch. Some patterns call to work into the chain or into the join but we're going to start our first stitches and also when it says skip a stitch you're going to be skipping your first actual stitch. And for the second round we're going to chain two and then this is a half treble crochet and we're going to be working into the third loop of our half doubles. So if you're not familiar with the half double third loop you know that we have a front loop a back loop and then when you kind of switch it back this way you'll see there's a third loop right here along the backside and you can see the back of a half double looks just like the top of a half double crochet. So that's where you're going to find your third loop and some people call it a camel hump. So we're going to work into that camel hump and we're going to do a half treble. So to start a half treble you're going to yarn over twice. We're going to insert our hook into the third loop or the camel hump. What that does is it creates a nice V pattern on the front. Then you yarn over pull up one loop, you'll have four on your hook, yarn over pull through two and this is where the half treble comes in. It creates a half double crochet on top of your treble. You've got a dog here. So you're going to yarn over and pull through all three so you'll create the same effect as that on the front. So yarn over two times, insert your hook into the camel hump, pull up a loop, yarn over pull through two, yarn over and pull through three and that's your half treble. So you're going to repeat the half treble all the way around and then join into the chain two when you get to the beginning. So go ahead and pause the video and we'll be back. Alright I hope you guys had a easier time than I did. So here are 16 that I've changed or done for mine completed. I wanted to show you guys too that when you transition the colors the colors have this really neat kind of transition to them when they start to fade into the other colors which is great. So here we're going to join in the top of our chain two and that's our completed round and chains do not count as stitches. So remember just only count your actual stitches. For round three we're going to chain two, we're going to skip our first stitch which is this actual half treble and then we're going to do an extended single crochet in the next and an extended single crochet, you'd insert your hook, yarn over pull up a loop, yarn over pull through the first loop only, yarn over and pull through both and that's an extended single crochet. So after we complete our extended single crochet we're going to skip the next stitch or we have the chain one first sorry skip the next stitch and then do an extended single crochet in the next. I always want to yarn over but you don't you just insert it pull through one and then pull through two then chain one, skip one, insert it, pull up, pull through one more and then so there's your extended single crochet. It leaves a little gap and it also leaves this little hole right here which that's the hole we're going to be working in for the next round. So go ahead and complete your entire round and pause the video and here I'm at the end so I know some people don't like Navajo flying. If you don't like this go ahead and just use a five weight yarn, chunky yarn and that will work good too. Okay guys I'll meet you back on the other side. Completed my 16 and I wanted to show you guys how to count these. So we skipped the first stitch but we're going to only first count our first extended single crochet plus the chain one so how we do that is we're going to do 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 so we're counting our extended single plus our chain one as the 16th or for you guys the 210th stitch and to join again we're going into the top of that chain two to join our rounds. There we go and so for the next round which is going to be round four we're going to do it a little different. We're going to chain three. I think I lost a loop. There we go. One, two, three, chain three and we're going to extend a single crochet in the first extended single crochet so that's right here. These extended single crochets kind of leave a weird a weird top to them as you can see how it creates this little gap over here so that's actually the top of the loop itself just like that's the top of our chain loop so we're going to go ahead and extended single crochet into the very first one here to pull out more yarn then we're going to chain one and we're going to skip one chain which is that's our chain one there and then we're going to work an extended single crochet into the right of the main extended single right there so go straight into that little space it almost looks like there's two chain spaces with a diagonal bar so go into the left opening and do an extended single plus a chain one skip and then work straight into the the next opening and that repeats a chain one extended single crochet chain one until you get to the end so you can pause the video and come back and it looks like I'm almost finished Navajo flying sometimes you can drop the strands so gotta make sure you drop the strands so when we get to the end we have we have our extended single plus our chain one and we're going to go ahead and join with a slip stitch into the second chain of the chain three so we've got our three chains one two and three so we're going to go into the second one there I'm woman handling my yarn some more yarn so we're going to repeat for the next row row five we're going to repeat the row we just completed so you're going to chain three then we're going to extended single crochet into the first extended single crochet which is right here chain one and then repeat extended single crochet chain one until you come around and that'll be your completed row five so we've got three four and five so pause the video and come back alright so I completed my last extended single crochet and the end of this row which is a repeat of row four also says to chain into the second chain or slip stitch join into the second chain of our starting chain there so there we have rows four or three four and five now row six starts off with a chain two and we're going to work a half double crochet into the back loop of each stitch or chain around which starting off in your first extended single crochet there so we're going to do a half double crochet into just the back loop only and you know I'm not sure if you know but every crochet stitch has a front loop and a back loop so the back loop and this has chains mixed in with it so it's a little hard to tell but there's a front loop there there's the back loop so go into the back loop and do one half double crochet in each chain and each stitch what that does is it just creates a ridge in the front all right so pause the video here and then meet me back when you have yours complete and see it just creates this just a little ridge okay so here's what we have so far and this is my last row round half double crochet into the back loop only so it creates this kind of little ridge up there I wanted to mention to that in I noticed that in the tutorial for row three the first row of extended single crochets you're going to be working into the third loop also that's in the written pattern but for some reason I worked through both in this so I'll make a little note of that on row three around three and just let you guys know that that's where you're supposed to be working so it creates another little ridge right there so there we've got our rows three four and five and then our round six round round not rows okay so for round seven after you join into your chain we're going to be skipping the first half double crochet and make sure it's not the join because we're not skipping the join we're skipping the actual stitch itself so we're going to skip this first half double and work a double crochet into the next one but first we're going to chain two then we're going to skip this half double and work a double crochet into the next in the third loop so go ahead and find that third loop back there pull up and double crochet then we're going to work into the third loop of this double crochet that we skipped or half double that we skipped and go back into that third loop which is kind of hard to see but you can see it back there we're working around the other one the other double crochet so there it creates an X stitch and it also creates a ridge there in the front so we repeat that we're going to skip one work a double into the third loop of the next one then we're going to go back into our skip stitch in the third loop and work another double pull my yarn through you continue that around until you reach the very end so go ahead and pause the video and then we'll come back and we'll start the next round there you go alright so I hope you guys enjoyed that round that one goes takes a little bit of time when you're doing 210 of them but here you can see what the pattern of the scarf should look like now of course you're going to have more changes of color because you're working a larger scarf so here at the end of that round seven we're going to join with a slip stitch into the top of the chain two so right up here one two okay and so I must note that if you're working this pattern and working 210 stitches then you'll be at a point where your Mandala Mandala yarn will probably be finished but if it's not you can continue working the next round with with your Mandala yarn or you can grab another five weight yarn and then use that for the next round which is what I did because my Mandala yarn was gone right I mean it's almost gone there's like I think just a tiny bit left but not enough to do another entire round so I'm just going to show you how to work this round using my existing yarn if you're not using the existing yarn you're going to pull this out tie it off and then when you attach your new yarn you're going to attach it into the same the same slip stitch that you left off with here so that you're going to be starting over at the same spot so to begin round eight we're going to chain two then we're going to yarn over and we're going to do a back post stitch around the first double crochet so back post is where you're going in from the back coming out the front and going straight through the center wrapping it around that double crochet so you kind of have to find your double there it is just go in there then that's your double crochet and we're going to work a double crochet around that stitch there the next one we're going to do a front post stitch around the one that lays on top so the way I remember which ones I'm doing is we're doing a back post around the one that's kind of hidden in the back and a front post around the one that's out front so go in from the back hook it around and then complete your double crochet and then go into the middle around the backside you continue that around until you reach the very first stitch again and that's what it looks like it creates kind of a interesting forward and backwards pattern alright press pause and we'll meet you around the other side alright so I completed my round and that's kind of what what it looks like that's such a pretty stitch I might use that one for another scar so when we come to the end of that round we're going to join into the top of our slip stitch our chain two into the top chain of the chain two with a slip stitch there we go and so that's your completed side for this and then we're going to flip it we're going to keep it right side facing towards us just flip it upside down and then we're going to start working the bottom border so go ahead and grab your complimentary yarn the reason I say complimentary is because as you can see from let me grab okay and as you can see from this I used a contrasting color that was something that kind of contrasted with the the starting chain color so I wanted to use something that would make it pop but also something that kind of blended in and matched so I used this color for this this part and I used it for the very last round that we did for our front post stitches and actually we have one more round of after round eight before we go ahead and flip it my bad okay so after after round eight we're going to go ahead and this is going to be round nine it's a border we chain two then we're going to half double crochet one in each stitch around so this is just a regular old half double crochet so you go through both stitches on this one and just half double your entire round see and you have to stop periodically throughout your project and do your Navajo flying which is fine you'll get fast at it after a while just takes practice oops I yarned over again complete it it's tricky working with three strands so there just go ahead and complete your entire round of half double crochet okay so after you've complete your last round round nine the half double crochets you should have something that looks similar to this but what we're going to do on our round ten which is going to be performed down here we're going to keep your right side up turn your work and of course you can weave in these tails if you'd like I'm using for this tutorial I'm just using yarn bees soft secret or not soft secret yarn bees denim in color because this one is pretty nice it's a little bit thicker than a worsted weight but I would recommend using a any kind of five weight to complement the five weight that we have here so for this round you can you can join into any basically any chain you'd like you can join into the starting chain but I'd recommend going into a chain next to it so I'm just going to go into this chain here then we're going to attach our yarn pull it up and then chain two then we're going to work a half double crochet in between each of the half doubles from our from our first or a second first round so we're going to go in between straight into the space between kind of enclosing the centers and just work one half double crochet in each one of those spaces between the half doubles this doesn't quite look like the scarf does because I used a thicker yarn for the actual scarf but that's what you do and when you get back to the beginning what you're going to do is just this is what it looks like is you'll join into the chain that you created and then tie it off and weave in all your tails and that'll be your entire mandala infinity scarf let me grab the other one and I'll show you what it looks like so as you can see this is a thicker yarn that I used and actually I think I might have doubled up this yarn be yarn because I liked the way it looked to which I may have done that doubled it up but it does look really cool when you use a thicker weight as opposed to a thinner weight you can you can see the difference it's just thicker prettier so that's it you guys I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and another note this there is a right side and a wrong side but you know of course it's going to twist up when you're wearing it but the right side is the side with the ridges on it because so I made all those ridges I like them but the back side looks pretty cool too they both look really neat it kind of gives a raised texture texture to it alright leave a comment below if you have any questions I have a pattern test group or pattern support and a pattern test group on Facebook and those links will be down below as well as well as all these links to the yarn are in my blog post as well as the full written pattern so if you haven't already please subscribe to my channel if you like my tutorials and also hit the little bell button because if you do you'll get notified of future tutorials or you can sign up for my mailing list or subscribe to the blog you can do all those things or you can just like my face on Facebook my page on Facebook too either way anyway guys I hope you have a great weekend happy crocheting and hashtag this Mandala infinity scarf so I can see what colors you come up with since this has so many cool colors take care guys