FO: Another Fun Fur Scarf

Tonight was movie night at Gauge. Somewhere along the way, I heard the movie was Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. It turned out to be Harold and Maude, which was a very different movie. But it was a movie I wanted to see anyway, so it was all good. (BTW - If you've seen the movie, what does the ending mean?)

I also got to finish another fun fur scarf while I watched the movie. Yes, the scarf is just like this one. It's a good thing I cleaned my mirror, because two Poncho Pig shots would have been confusing.

Like the first scarf, this scarf was knit using two skeins of Lion Brand Fun Fur Stripes in "Mexicana" and US size 9 plastic needles. It's basic garter stitch. This time I cast on 18 stitches. (Or at least that's how many I ended up with.)

I cut it very close. I barely had enough yarn to finishing binding off. I probably should of unraveled a row, but I didn't.

Normally I just let self-striping yarn do it's thing. This time I did a little more screwing with the stripes than I normally would. The specific stripe pattern is pretty noticeable, and since both the scarves are going to my friend's grand kids, I didn't want to screw up the stripes on one scarf and not the other. I clipped off some of the red at the beginning of the second skein, then reattached it at the end to preserve the pattern. I had to rewind the second skien anyway, so I knew where in the stripe pattern the skein would begin and end.

More details and tips for knitting with fun fur are in last blog entry.

Some tips on knitting with Fun Fur

Yes, I'm making another Fun Fur scarf, and yes, it's exactly the same as the last one. My friend from church wanted another one, and I had two more skeins left in the same color.

Of course, the picture above is what it looks like tonight. This is what it looked like when I started it on Saturday:

Yeah, I has some technical difficulties with the yarn. There are two skeins in there, and one of them fell completely apart in my knitting bag.

In the little craft shows I do, I've spoken with a lot of people who have tried to knit with furry yarn, but had problems with it and eventually gave up. I have some tips on knitting with eyelash yarn that I thought I'd share with any beginners out there.

Ironically, my first tip is Fun Fur is not for beginners - Fun Fur and similar eyelash yarns are often marketed toward beginners along with a free pattern for a garter stitch scarf. It doesn't take a lot of experience to knit with eyelash yarn. However if you're planning to cast on for the first time with Fun Fur, you're setting yourself up for failure. Start learning with some basic yarn instead.

It's all about feel - The "eyelashes" come off of the main yarn. It took me some time, but eventually I learned to feel where the main strand of yarn was with my thumb. That's why I can knit fun fur in the dark. Once you find the yarn itself, try your best to ignore the eyelashes.

Try stranding - Holding your eyelash yarn together with another yarn will make it easier to knit with. Some yarns like this one are already stranded.

You'll probably use bigger needles than you would expect - Fun Fur is pretty thin, but Lion Brand classifies it as bulky/chunky. Furry yarn is typically knit at a large gauge. US size 10.5 needles are recommended by Lion Brand. I use US size 9 needles (and as I mentioned before, I have a very large gauge.)

Mistakes are hidden - This may go without saying, but if you end up with an extra stitch, just knit two together. Losing a stitch is a little different. If you find yourself a stitch short, I would at least attempt to see if a stitch has been dropped to prevent ladders.

You can crochet with Fun Fur, but it's really hard - I've done it once. Unless you are doing just one row or one round for a furry trim, I don't recommend it. Finding the stitches is really hard.

Oh, and take better care of your yarn than I did.