I made another hitchiker scarf. The first one I had gifted. I quite liked making it. It's fairy mindless, it's garter stitch, and it shows of wildly handpainted yarns quite nicely.
Like this skein of Wollmeise that I got in a swap.
The color was "Aspen Tree". I loved it because it was COLORFUL, but couldn't really think of too much to do with it as I felt it was a bit busy. Except...
It's glorious, this second hitchhiker scarf. Wollmeise is sturdy stuff, so wearing this on a trail was no thing at all. Plus, when I went to the pub at night, I had some class little accessory to brighten things up.
I used up the entire skein, and it is plenty long. It can drape, it can wrap, it can just be an awesome scarf-shawl and keep me warm, I can flip the end around and make a bandanna. The asymmetry is fun to play with and I've worn this quite a lot already. It's too bad- I love knitting lacy fancy shawls, but they never get any use as I feel they are too delicate or fussy to actually wear. The big boring plain knits I wear all the time.
Also....there's a fair bit of navy blue in there, which means I can wear this with pretty much anything in my wardrobe.
All these time-consuming colorwork mittens and lace socks kind of take a toll on me. Occasionally, I need some instant gratification.
It this case, with novelty yarn.
Have you seen this stuff? It's been out for a while now, and I found some on sale at Janette's Rare Yarns, so I couldn't resist. It's called Kidsilk Creation. It's the same luxe yarn as Kidsilk Haze, except the fine strand of silk and kid mohair has been pre-knitted into a giant tube.
There's not a whole lot to do with yarn like this. I mean, you get a ball of it that retails at £17 and it's only 11 yards long. On the inside of the label (and plenty of sources free online) you can find the pattern for the Kidsilk Creation Scarf in both knit and crochet versions. Even if you've never done any crafting before, you could totally make this as it requires no skill and is very forgiving as far as mistakes go. Basically, you start at one end, push your needle through the tube to make two stitches, and then knit them with more yarn picked up a little further down the tube, while pulling the tube open to make a fishnet ruffle. It quickly makes a spiral, and it keeps spiraling around as you go. Depending how spaced apart your stitches are, you can have tight corkscrews, or big, lofty ruffles.
I made two of the knit scarves right away. They took me about an hour a piece. They make for lovely gifts, as they look far more complicated then you should get credit for. If I could find an appropriate project, you could also make a knitted border for, say, a cardigan front or a collar, to give it a fun ruffled edge. They make for a fun, flirty scarf that is light and airy and super feminine.
That was a fun little break. Now, back to the grind.
A friend gifted me a spectaularly special ball of yarn last year. Filatura Di Crosa Superior, a cashmere-silk blend, soft and lofty and fine, in the most alluring color of lipstick red.
I got to work right away on an appropriate pattern- something lacy and lovely. I found this pattern online and got to work. Although it called for 900+ yards of yarn for a large scarf, but I figured I would just sew up the scarf to make a cowl when I ran out of yarn as I only had 330 yards.
So miserable.
The pattern is easy- a series of yarn overs with dropped stitches lined up, to give it a carelessly destroyed and distressed look to it. Still..It's cashmere silk blend! You can't make it look bad. Once you were done, you give it a good felting to firm up the fabric. I did this rather ingeniously, as I had finished it while I was living in a hotel with no real way to felt it or let it dry....I used it as a bath puff for a couple days. Soap, water, agitation, et voila. It felted it perfectly evenly, it's super soft and surprisingly warm for something so full of air bubbles.
It's generally just way too precious for me to justify the cost, but it doesn't hurt to try every now and then.
The market is flooded with so much cheap cashmere. Instead of being an ultra-luxury good, the Chinese figured out how to mass produce it and now you can get a sweater of low-quality, but a label that says 100% cashmere, for less than $50. Ten or so years ago, you would be paying many hundreds of dollars. It's astounding. Still, when you come across the real, high-quality stuff, it's worlds different. It feels like heaven.
So, back when I lived in New York, at one point I inadvertently signed up for Groupon. Ugh, Groupon. Your idealist sales pitches make me feel inadequate for not getting my hair straightened and my face microdemabraided and my cellulite lasered daily. I would pop one into my shopping cart every now and then when it was something I would actually use: usually restaurants I was already known to frequent, or a good deal on a yoga studio package that was somewhere between work and home. Occasionally, a fancy yarn store would offer up one, and being no fool, I would grab it.
So I had a Groupon for Knitty City- a place on the Upper West Side that was just a little too far out of my daily grind to be of any real use to me. I think you pay $25 and got $50 worth of product, or something like that. It's a nice way to try new yarns anyway. I showed up, looked around, and instantly noticed that they had Jade Sapphire 6-ply cashmere bundled up as a scarf kit- 4 skeins for $100, when the yarn is normally about $50 a skein. So, for $75 total, I ended up buying $200 worth of the nicest cashmere yarn money could possibly buy. It was still ridiculously expensive, the color selection made me a little depressed, but it came home with me and sat in my stash, occasionally being gently petted and dreamed of the day when I might actually have the balls to make something with this wonder of the textile world.
Finally, right before I moved from France: much travel time, the need to use bamboo needles on the plane, and the need for a fairly mindless pattern resulted in this:
A lovely, wearable Saroyan scarf. It worked out perfectly- the yarn is so soft and drapey and cushy, a simple pattern was best; something unfussy. I still am a bit ashamed of the ungodly amount of money it cost me for the yarn, but it's so snuggly and amazing and warm, $75 seems totally reasonable now.
The lace-leaf edging gives it a nice touch. I've worn it pretty much constantly since I finished it and it's my go-to scarf this winter. As it should be!
Despite the fact that I finished it while in Costa Rica, I managed to weave in the ends with my stubby fingers and trim them off with my pocket knife (gasp!) and started wearing it instantly, regardless of it being quite tropical in climate.
But it's fantastic, and my favorite thing ever (at the moment anyway) and I might even take this time to admit that I have worn this to bed on more than one occasion. It's that comforting. When I do reluctantly take it off, it feels like I've sawed off a limb and I totally feel a sense of loss. The bottom line is: I refuse to have a bad day when I am wearing this scarf.
Wow. There was a whole grove of these trees blossoming in Regent's Park. It was lovely. It's February, I'm still in my winter coat, but it's warm enough here for some confused trees to flash some obscene shade of pink.
For serious, guys. It's pretty much springtime if you squint.
I'm getting my life together here and meeting some fab people. Meanwhile, I've finally got a new-ish laptop to work with and I'm getting caught up on the backlog of pictures I've taken over the past six months or so. So, I present to you this lacy little number that I made last fall, took pictures of on the banks of the Seine one sunny day, gifted and forgot all about.
It's the Live Oak Shawlette by Romi Hill. It's a gorgeous half-circle shawl.
My only real regret was not to be able to block it out properly. You'd need about 740 pins, but it would make it oh-so lovely. I only had about 8 pins and some scrap yarn, so the edge isn't as lovely as it possibly could be.
I did get a bit cocky with my yardage and did another lace repeat, and had to find a contrasting color to finish it off. I actually kind of like it with the contrasting stripe. The yarn is Madelinetosh Merino Light in "Thoreau" and the contrast is "Rosewood".
It's totally wearable and sweet, and I gifted it to a chic newly-minted Parisian friend.
One of my friends gave me a pretty skein of Brooks Farm Acero last summer, and I thought the best way to make use of such a pretty yarn is a shawl. It's a lovely, heathery fingering-weight yarn of wool, silk and viscose. I paired it with a simple Stephen West pattern- Herbivore. I'm determined to make more lacey-lace scarves and shawls, but when I'm traveling, I like mindless stitch patterns to just knit away the hours of planes and trains and waiting for bubble tea to be customized.
I already bemoaned how the security at Orly threw my needles away, but I got to Berlin and bought a set of Knit Pros and carried on. This scarf was so easy and fast that I had most of it done by the time I was on the delayed flight back to Paris. I knit until I was out of yarn, blocked it best I could on the couch with scrap yarn and pins, and it's just lovely. The yarn drapes beautifully, and it softened up nicely once it was washed.
It's big enough to wrap around your neck without it coming un-done, but not so huge it's unwieldily. Which, to me, is perfect sized.
While it's not the warmest scarf ever- these pictures were taken in Copenhagen and I did spend some time chilled, but more on that later- I love the twisted stich pattern and increases give it a shape that means it will stay put.
I am totally embracing and carrying on with the style of Parisians and their love for scarves. I now feel naked without one.
All the way from my home state came two skeins of organic merino.
Not all merino is created equal. This is the best I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Swans Island has amazing yarns. Soft, bouncy, itch-free, and warm. It's exactly what I want in a wool yarn. The price tag is higher than the medical marijuana users there, but who could resist the most delightful of raspberry pink colors? I, for one, could not.
I cast on for the Wayfarer scarf, a basic but classic Jared Flood pattern.
It alternates between lots of garter stitch and an undulating slip-stitch pattern. Not the most exciting thing to knit, but I love the way this yarn made the slipped stitches pop, and I was comforted at the ease at which this worked up.
It's snuggly warm and I actually look forward to going out on cold days because I get to wear this.
I made mine a tad longer than written since I had the yardage, and I just love the way it drapes as I give it the multi-wrap treatment. After several wears, there is not a pill to be plucked. If I didn't choose such a shockingly femme pink, this pattern would be totally appropriate for a man's scarf as well.
Oh, All these Gray Skies! The monochrome, the dreary undertones, the gray-on-gray low clouds, the fog, and an unearthly amount of rain. It rarely drizzles for more than a couple hours. All the rest of the time, it downpours or hails.
I have embraced this color palate as my own. Goodbye to sunshiny summery brights or warm autumn tones. Let us immerse ourselves in a muted, w'ntry mix.
Hence, the lovely grays, purple-grays and white I chose for my Clockwork Scarf/Shawl.
Quick, mostly-garter stitch. My favorite kind of mindless knitting that goes to see films with me.
Another great pattern from Stephen West. Just when I think I have enough things to wear around my neck, he publishes another pattern that will leave you wanting more. I love this one lots. You can wrap it around your neck a few times, or drape it gracefully.
The yarn is Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga- a skein of undyed and a skein of the David Attenborough colorway. I could have kept going and made another repeat of the clock, but decided to put the extra yarn aside for some upcoming colorwork mittens.
The quest for a closet full of elegant neckwear continues.
This was was a simple affair, knit up quickly and it used all but a couple of yards of a skein of sock yarn. I love small shawls that are maybe not quite functional for winter warmth, but for a breezy dressy addition to your every day. It's essential here, where you can pretty much spot the tourist based on the fact that they are not wearing scarves. It's almost a little obscene to see a bare neck at this point...it's like leaving the house without your pants. Scarf up!
It also doesn't get terribly warm here, so having constant cozy comfort doesn't hurt. I know, my dear friends and New Yorkers. You grow jealous at my 11 month knitwear use. Yes, in August it might get steamy here, but so far it's been sweat-free. Apart from an ocasional day where it might hit 75 degrees in the afternoon sun, it's far enough north in longitude so that I haven't had to go a day without a light jacket. I am a lover of summertime and hot weather, but I'm finding this a rather pleasant change over last summer and the 116 degree day where I decided that if I stand in front of the oven for a couple hours and stew a chicken, if only so it would feel much cooler when I move away from the oven.
Anyway. The shawl. Another Stephen West creation. Easy peasy. Just knit and purl. You start out with a paired increases, and as the shawl grows, you make more, so it ends up being a series of wedges, with the largest one in the middle. Yes, it's small, but after blocking it stretched out to be big enough to wrap around and stay wrapped, and that's all I really want. It's got gorgeous drape, and it's a good excuse to break out a nice skein of handpainted yarn that you've been hoarding. The top edging is a little tight by design, but it doesn't bother me.
I don't have proper blocking equipment- it all amounts to a few pins and hair clips at this point. Mine blocked out nicely, although the samples look like they were less pointed on the ends. I still view this whole moving and living in a strange land experience as if I'm just going camping, and dealing with the little discomforts of going without.
The yarn is Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! in the color "Shelob". It's very soft. I used almost the entire skein...I might have had 2 or 3 yards left over, but I kept knitting until I almost ran out before doing a couple rows of the garter edging. I've worn this a ton already. I didn't pack or bring too many of the shawls and scarves I've made over the years, rightly guessing that I would dive into creating more of them.
The pictures were taken at the Chateau Fontainebleau, where there are loads of rock climbers bouldering up huge stones dropped randomly by glaciers throughout the great forest around it.
Right before I packed up and moved from Brooklyn, I had an insane urge to make a few bulky-yarn projects in order to:
1. Use up the bulky-yarn stash. I think all new knitters go through a phase where the answer is "bulky yarn" to all their yarn questions. It's fast all right. But damn, if you could get something to look flattering on something other than a waif, you deserve an award.
2. Justify my use of knitting time as making visual progress at a time when I felt like I was getting no where and spending my days on endless hold-music calls. Most of these things were all knitted in the course of an afternoon, and in one case, in the time it took for AT&T to dick me around and not resolve anything at all, even though I was asking nicely.
First up: a handspun cowl. It started out as a braid of Corriedale/Alpaca blend from Spunky Eclectic in the "Thunderstorm" colorway.
Great colors...nice and moody.
Spun it up as a chunky 2-ply.
Then I learned a fantastic new technique...the Mobius cowl.
It's a little tricky to get started, but it's simple once you do it. Randomly altering your knit and purl rows makes for interesting texture, and there are tons of different ways to make this your own.
I loved it so much, I went ahead and dug up bags of scarps of some Rowan Biggy Print (which may or may not have been in my stash for more than 7 years) and made a stripy, ultra bulky one on size 17 needles.
It's enormously warm, and I love the texture that the thick-and-thin yarn produced. I randomly alternated the two colors I had until I ran out of yarn, and poof! it's magic! Really, it would have been pushing it if I invested two hours in this.
So I kept on rolling with the Biggy Print, and made a mistake-rib scarf with what I had left:
The pattern (if you could call it that) is Franciose from "French Girl Knits". Mine came out short, so a pin or a button might be added at some point.
I bought this ages ago, when I first started spindle-spinning. 2006 or '07. I spun it up pretty quickly, but then the yarn just sat in a bin for all these years. Shameful!
Spun up and plied, I only had 74 yards.
So I made a wee necktie out of it, based on this pattern (which called for laceweight yarn).
It does need a good blocking, but it used up all my yarn. Mission accomplished.
I felt clean and purged when that was done. No more odd skeins of overweight yarn to slow me down! Overly warm neckware to the rescue.
