Scarves

We saw a break in the rain Saturday so I hauled finished items downstairs to get photos. The stripes on the linen scarf still remind me of exercise wear but I like how bold they are:

Pattern: own
Stitch pattern: Feather Faggot from Barbara Walker’s First Treasury, page 185
Yarn: Euroflax 100% linen yarn, 3/4 skein black (color 18-2223-17) and 3/4 skein hot pink (color 18-1234-1)
Needles: size 4
Size: 6″ x 72″

Although the non-elastic yarn was rough on my hands, I enjoyed working with it.

I joined the colors by twisting the yarns around each other at each color change, just as you would when working intarsia. Remembering to always bring the new color under the old one on right-side rows and over rather than under on the wrong-side rows prevents tangling and also creates a neat little ladder of color changes on the wrong side:

Working with linen reminded me of something I read a while back in Spin Span Spun by Bette Hochberg, something that really boggled my mind. A little explanation first: linen and cotton were (and still are, I suppose) fibers commonly used when creating something that needed to be strong but not necessarily warm. Linen was often used in sails. And the thing that really got me: the Phoenicians and the Romans and the Vikings and all those old pre-Industrial Revolution world explorers you learned about in elementary school sailed the Seven Seas in ships that had very large sails… and all those sails were made of handspun thread that was then handwoven into the sail fabric. Amazing.

I haven’t spun with linen yet. I wonder how hard it is. I tried spinning from a cotton ball once, spectacularly unsuccessfully.

This week’s bus knitting looks very festive:

Just a quick post today.

The scarf is about 5 feet long now. And I’m getting a little sick of it, too, as the linen is rough on my hands. Here it is before my lunch break today:

And I’m starting to feel like some sort of sock machine:

This is sock #2 finished and #5 started, for those of you who are counting. The look of the finished sock in this photo reminds me of the elephant inside the snake in The Little Prince, but the bump here is the remainder of the skein and not a tiny pachyderm. I am not going to graft any of these until my mom tries them on so I am also not cutting any yarn until then (if I have to lengthen any of these socks, why weave in more ends than necessary?); tucking the remainder inside the finished sock seems the easiest method of storage.

Take 2 never got to be photographed. It was the same width as the first two-panel attempt, and about 8 inches into it I realized there was no way this was going to be a wrap as I don’t have enough yarn so I unraveled again and cast on with fewer stitches.

A scarf it is. Here is what it looked like this morning:

It is much longer tonight. Looking at it now, the color placement reminds me a little of 1980s-inspired exercise wear. Thank goodness I am not knitting with spandex.

Oddly, the black is much more pliable than the pink although both yarns are Louet Euroflax with the same weight and yardage per skein, at least according to the labels. I have read that different colors in the same yarn can feel very different because of the different dyes used and this seems to be such a yarn.

Last night I couldn’t stand the sight of the 3 pairs of socks in progress and instead dug out Barbara Walker’s first treasury and some linen I brought to the top of the stash some months ago. I knew I wanted bold lengthwise stripes and finally chose feather faggot stitch. Here is what I had at the end of my bus ride this morning:

And tonight I decided I did not like it, so I unraveled it and cast on for take 2, this time with hot pink on both sides and black in the middle. It is now almost back to the length it was this morning but you will need to wait for a photo as it is dark here now.

This is my first time working with linen (how did that happen? I’ve been knitting for years and years) and I can confirm it does soften as you work with it. The bit that I unraveled and am now knitting with a second time is far softer and pliable than the skein I did not use yet. And it continues to soften as it is worn and washed. Amazing stuff.

A few hours of my time got sucked into the black hole of Ravelry the other night. I put in my recently-completed Monkey socks, then spent time admiring the many other Monkeys listed in Ravelry. Incredible, how beautiful and different they all look, just by virtue of being made in different yarns. It had the unfortunate effect of making me want to immediately shop for gorgeous sock yarns but I refrained. After all, I shopped for sock yarn just last week (1 skein of Trekking color 158, luscious!) and, more importantly, Stitches West is next month…

The colors in this scarf made me crave hot chocolate the entire time I worked on it. The brown is just the right color for a really dark chocolate-y concoction and the tan reminded me of that light foam you get on top of a good mug of cocoa.

It was very hard to photograph. The brown and tan blends in with natural backgrounds so well that I took half a dozen photos and finally had to settle on this:

This second photo doesn’t show the scarf to its best advantage, but its shadow shows off the rows of diagonal holes nicely:

Pattern: own - garter stitch with yo, k2 tog that shifts one stitch to the left every other row
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Spray, 70% super kid mohair, 30% silk, color: 571
Needles: size 5
Size: 5.5″ x 62″

I broke down and put myself on the waiting list for Ravelry today. I must be crazy: I feel like I don’t have enough time to knit and spin what I have now; I hardly need a reason to crave more.  But it just looks like so much fun!

It will take a while: there are 10,884 people ahead of me. That means there is time for hot chocolate. Mmm… hot chocolate.

This holey little number caught the eye of a few people on the bus and was admired at knitting group recently, all because of the orange goodness. Pardon the wrinkles; it blocked beautifully but I always have to stuff my things in a pack and tote them to the park to photograph them properly:

Pattern: own - garter stitch with yo, k2 tog that shifts one stitch to the left every other row
Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns Kid Merino, 28% kid mohair, 28% merino wool, 44% micro nylon, color 9798 Red Cinnamon
Needles: size 4
Size: 5.5″ wide x 52″ long

This was one of those yarns that I wanted to keep in the stash, just to be able to admire its colors while it sat in the basket. The colors shift from varying shades of orange to a bright fuchsia to a hint of maroon, absolutely lovely. I am truly sorry to see it go into the bin of sellable items.

This is the same yarn I used for the Icarus Shawl back in January. It is wearing well, so I expect this scarf will, too.  

At long last, the striped scarf is done:

Pattern: own
Yarn: Patons Rustic Wool, 100% wool; 2 1/2 skeins maroon (color 1014) & 1 2/3 skeins oatmeal (color 1009)
Needles: size 7
Size: 9″ x 67″

The “Rustic” in the yarn’s name must refer to the many guard hairs I had to pick out of it while working. This was a pretty scratchy yarn until I removed those hairs.

This is a double-thick scarf. I worked it in the round with a phoney seam on either side so it folds nicely and sewed the ends together to close it. The stripes are a simple numerical progression. I started with 6 rows of maroon and reduced down to 1 then increased back up to 6. With the oatmeal it was 4 rows down to 1 and back. I had cold ears last night while finishing this thing so I experimented with ways of wearing it. The length allows me to stuff one end up inside it and wear that end as a hat, and I still have enough to wear the rest as a proper scarf… but this does look pretty goofy! It will well serve someone who lives in a cold, blustery climate.

No finished projects this week, but a number of projects are in progress. I did not work on the Icelandic yoke sweater at all but Lily of the Valley is a few inches longer and it is already nearly time to break into the second hank:

It is not as big as I thought it would be. After so many hours of knitting, I figured the sphinx would be much more covered. But blocking usually does wonders, so I will take it on faith that it will be bigger once it’s done. Plus a lot of the shawl is draped over the sphinx’s other side so this photo is not quite representative of all I have done.

I have some reservations now about the yarn I chose to make Lily. It is very light; the slightest breeze scuttles the work in progress along several feet, even with the weight of knitting needles in it. Getting the photo above was not easy in breezy San Francisco. I had to take several shots until the wind finally settled at the exact moment I pushed the camera’s button. To me, this translates into something I may not be able to wear here at all once it’s finished. Sigh. But perhaps I can take it on trips and wear it then.

This week’s bus knitting projects include a baby hat and a double thick striped scarf, both about a third of the way done:

My red cabled sweater is still resting in the bag I stuffed it in about a month ago. I have a strong suspicion that it will not make it to Knit in Public Day on June 9.

As part of Knit From Your Stash 2007, I told myself I’d try to spin one bundle of fiber each month this year, too, in an attempt to reduce that stash as well. My fiber for April was a 70% wool, 30% silk blend I finally got around to plying last night.  

Here it is as roving:

And as finished yarn (apologies for the blurry detail shot):

Fiber: 70% merino wool, 30% tussah silk, colorway: Concord
Supplier: Carolina Homespun
Quantity: 4 ounces
Finished yarn: 1 skein, 2-ply, 462 yards, 17 wpi (= sport weight)

Spinning with this stuff was interesting. I had to hold my hands farther apart than I’ve had to with 100% wool because of the silk content. Every once in a while I’d hit a small knot of silk and need to give a great tug to separate the fibers enough to spin. There are small slubs of the white-ish silk in the finished yarn which I think adds to its beauty.

For May’s fiber I have 8 ounces of one colorway, so I’m going to go against my usual practice and try to spin a thicker yarn to see if I can deliberately create a worsted weight. Maybe I’ll try 3-ply…

Since my last post I finished two small items that I knit on the bus:

Another drop-stitch scarf, using the last of my stashed nylon railroad-track yarn (thank goodness; I’m sick of the feel of the nylon in my hands):

Pattern: own (cast on 17, 5 rows garter stitch, 1 row k1, yo2)
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Eros Glitz, 86% nylon, 10% rayon, 4% Lurex, color 188
Needles: size 9
Size: 3.5″ wide x 56″ long without the fringe

And a little hat:

Pattern: own (k3 p3 spiral rib)
Yarn: Zitron Trekking XXL, 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon, color 100
Needles: size 2 metal dpn
Size: infant: 14.5″ around by 6.5″ tall

Other works in progress:

• A quick foray into one of Barbara Walker’s mosaic patterns yielded dismal results in a swatch for a potential scarf. I think I need to try the pattern with smaller needles to make it work.
• Worked a few rounds on the yoke of the Icelandic sweater.
• Ran the to-be-felted bag through the wash twice and it felted a lot, but it’s still too floppy so I’ll have to send it through at least once more, so no photo of that yet.
• Lily of the Valley grows slowly… but more quickly than she used to since every two rows decreases the total stitch count by one stitch.

And since Mr. MmmYarn and I went to the zoo today, you get a picture of a sleepy hippo and one of the great colors in a flamingo’s feathers:

I finished two scarves recently. The first one is a scrap yarn scarf, made with all my scraps of white and off-white yarn. I held the yarn double throughout with a strand of thin mercerized cotton I got from my great-grandmother’s stash.

Here’s a close-up so you can see the different yarns I used:

Pattern: own - cast on 270 stitches and work garter stitch lengthwise, changing yarns on each row and leaving tails long enough to make fringe
Yarn: many! mostly wool, cotton, and mohair, with small amounts of rayon, acrylic, nylon, etc.
Needles: size 8 Addi Turbo circular
Size: 5.5″ wide x 74″ long without the fringe

This is the second scrap yarn scarf I have made. I had no idea I had so many whites and off-whites. Last year I made one in blue and had to get extra scrap blues from friends and my husband. Several of the yarns I used this time were not scraps, but balls of whites I bought last year in an attempt to knit a garter for my wedding. I figured the few yards I used here wouldn’t deplete the skeins too much to be used elsewhere. The scraps from the yarn I ended up using for my wedding shawl and garter are in this scarf, too.

Which brings me to why I really liked making this scarf: I got to revisit the joys of past projects. And some frustrations, too, but with simple garter stitch I got to forget the frustrations. So with each row, I got to remember a past hat, or a baby sweater or blanket, or the fishtrap aran sweater I made for myself. Some of these things I made years ago and just having the yarn in my hands again made those projects seem much more recent. The thin mercerized cotton I carried along on each row was yarn that was in my great-grandmother’s stash when she died and that my grandmother decided to give to me.

Last week’s bus knitting was another drop-stitch scarf:

Pattern: own; 5 rows garter stitch followed by 1 row of k1, yo2
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Eros, 100% nylon
Needles: size 9
Size: 3″ wide x 60″ long without the fringe