Tag Archives: scarves

Still here, no really

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Wow – it’s really been over a month since I last posted. I’m not sure how it’s already mid-March. And I’m a little fuzzy on what happened to February.

Real life has been seriously interfering with Knitting life, but I did manage to finish a long-promised scarf for one of my best friends. The same ruffle scarf I’ve done in the past, but I changed it a little bit, and added a border at the end:

I like how it came out, and hope my friend does, too. But (true confessions), I only thought of adding the border when I, uh, ran out the white yarn I’d been using. So, I dithered between going to store and getting more (Excuse to go buy more yarn!) and trying out something new. The test scarf I made for myself is very soft – almost too soft! – and so I thought the border with a different type of yarn would give the scarf a little substance. I wasn’t expecting the sort of vintage look that it adds, but I count that as a bonus.

My mom is coming to visit this weekend – so a trip to the yarn store is definitely in order!

Working without a net, or at least a pattern

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Drunk with knitting power (and maybe some beer), I recently asked Redbeard what I could make for him. He thought about it for a minute, and finally asked if I could make him a glasses case. Redbeard has worn glasses since he was 12 and has an aversion to direct sunlight that means that he never goes out without prescription sunglasses and some sort of brimmed hat. This means he’s almost always wearing one pair of glasses and carrying the other – in a sequence of never-ideal cases that have failed him in one way or another.

So – no pressure. Just not to fail him where countless others have.

I decided to go the felt route, and found a wool-mohair-angora mixed yarn in a color Redbeard likes. I did a felted test patch, and wasn’t happy with how well it felted down with size 8 needles, so I knitted it on my smallest needles (US 5) instead. I didn’t even really look for a pattern, because I couldn’t believe anyone else had this crazy project, and I knew what I wanted to try – a rectangle combined with a triangle-y flap that ended in a string that would be wrapped around the case to help secure the glasses. Here’s what it looks like, before stitching the rectangle into a pouch:

I used the SSK and K2tog stitches (that I learned from the market bag) on the knitting side to create the triangle flap, but wanted to reduce on the purl side, too. I couldn’t find anything that made any sense to me to use as the purling counter-point to SSK, so I just cast off one stitch at the start of each purl row. This worked really well, actually! The P2tog took care of the last stitch.

I’ve sown up the pouch, but am too tired to get a picture, let alone start felting.

BUT before I trudge to bed – I want to also bring up my other project, that I mentioned awhile ago and have been making slooooooow progress on. There is something about this scarf that makes it hard for me to want to work on it. Apparently I’m not so good at counting to 7 over and over again and find it really challenging (knit 7, purl 7, knit 7, purl – wait how many was that?)

Or, even more likely, the “keyhole” experience that I suffered at the beginning of scarf has scarred me for life. Which is how long it will take me to be ready to face it again at the other end of this scarf. Don’t ask why the keyhole is off-center. Just don’t ask. (I have no idea.)

Ruffle scarf 2: Wider and much more grey

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As promised, I have revisited the ruffle scarf, but this time I added some extra rows to make it a little wider. The yarn I thought was mostly grey was actually white to black with grey in between, so I’m glad that I used it for this scarf because the minor pooling  is not so obvious!

Each project is still a learning experience for me – and for this scarf I learned several things: First, I learned that it is possible to start knitting the wrong way in the middle a row if you’re not paying attention. Second, I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter if you’re knitting with mohair! I love this stuff! I didn’t even bother to pull out the wrong stitches (in part because I couldn’t figure out how many there were), I just turned around and knitted the other way.

Quick side project

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I have been knitting, I swear. In fact, a couple days ago two things happened: my friend Gina pointed out a pretty scarf pattern and I realized my daughter and I had forgotten her friend’s birthday. So, a quick trip to the yarn store and about 1000 Yarn Overs later:

This was an easy scarf as advertised, except I should have paid more attention to the comments about the pattern (“It only takes one skein, so you know it can’t go forever”). Over 1000 purl stitches in a row (literally, in a single row)… and the yarn, while beautiful, is fiddly to work with so I don’t think that I’ve improved my purl technique (the opposite, maybe!). I will say, the best thing about working with mohair (or mohair-like substances) is that it masks mistakes really well. Which is good, because as far as I can tell, it prompts more mistakes, too.

Still – love the pattern! I’ll definitely try it again…

Running before I walk?

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So, I’ve decided to try to tackle this bag that I mention in my last post. One of the very first links on Google (for “knitting in the round”) turned up this video. This looks completely doable to me. I ran off to Michaels to get the right needles, but they don’t have the right yarn (even after I figured out what the heck “Aran weight” yarn meant). My local yarn shop (which I didn’t even know existed yesterday) is closed until Monday. Ugh! Must wait…

In the meantime, I finished my daughter’s blue scarf and then I started, and restarted (and restarted) a “sock” for my laptop. But, then my daughter showed me a knitting pattern for a scarf in a book she’s been really enjoying (The Magic Thief) – how could I resist switching to that? (Side question – just how many times CAN you unravel and knit with the same yarn?) Sure, I just finished a scarf for her… but her brother has a scarf AND a hat (and is now angling for mittens. Ugh – mittens?! I could probably manage some sort of bag-like device that fit over his hands and tied around his wrists with a draw string… maybe…)

After my daughter went to bed, I realized that I may have gotten over my head with the scarf, too. It turns out it has a “keyhole” at each end that requires having two balls of yarn going at the same time to work each side of the scarf around the keyhole. I got spooked by this and when the instructions offered a  non-keyhole alternative, I took it. I’m regretting that a little now, because upon second thought, maybe it wouldn’t be so hard. But, in the meanwhile, I’m discovering all kinds of cool things you can do with knitting and purling:

Unfortunately, I’m also learning that I really need to remember what stitch I’ve just, uh, stitched (stutch?) because the knobbly part at the bottom starts to look pretty weird if I get off by one K1-P1. Muttering out loud while I knit gets me some weird looks from Redbeard, so I’ve got to come up with some system. Maybe the way a hold the yarn out of each stitch? My purl stitch “technique” is still pretty “fluid”, though…

My hideously poor short term memory also means I also can’t keep track of how many rows I’ve done and so I’ve just been eye-balling the checked squares to make sure they’re square.  I guess I’d better figure out a trick for that, too. The problem is worse because I can’t tell how to count rows after I’ve done them!

Still – I really like how the scarf is going so far. I think I will try the “keyhole” thing at the end of the scarf.

The tale of two scarves

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I’ve been working on two scarves. One is a secret, which is why I haven’t posted anything about it. Well, it was secret until my youngest child told Redbeard yesterday “You’ve got a grey scarf, Daddy! But, it’s a secret.” So, no pictures of it yet, but I will now acknowledge its existence.

Anyway, I made that scarf with a heavier (yes, grey) yarn and it was so easy. All my stitches were just right – it looks great, if I say so myself. I used size 10 needles, for what that’s worth.

So, my youngest wants a red scarf and so I’ve started knitting one for him. It’s worsted-weight, on the same needles. I’m not finished yet, but let’s just say that I’m banking on the undiscriminating tastes of 3-year-olds when it comes to fine fashion. (So far so good, he ran up a little while ago while I was knitting and rubbed his cheek against it, happily exclaimed that it was soft and ran on).

I’m not sure what’s going on with this scarf, but everything that can go wrong has. I pulled out a couple rows, but what I redid was worse. So, now I’m just plowing ahead. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

It’s not totally clear from the picture, but it’s like my stitches reversed themselves briefly. And then left a big hole. I’m trying to decide if I can claim it is a button hole…