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.

FO: Fun Fur Scarf

I've had a nice relaxing yet productive day. I did laundry, worked on my, and finished two projects, including this Fun Fur scarf that I finished knitting while I was reading a book. Poncho Pig has graciously offered to model the scarf for us.

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. I forgot exactly how many stitches I cast on. I think it is a little wider than I normally make these type of scarves, about 17 or 18 inches.

This scarf was a request from a friend at my church. She had bought several skeins of yarn on sale, and asked me to knit scarves out of them. This is the first of those scarves. It's about 45 inches long (I think) which was her request. I think it's a good length. These things tend to "grow," and I've made the mistake of making them way too long in the past.

I've mentioned before than I don't share the hatred for eyelash yarn many others have. I just think it has it's place, and there is nothing wrong with the occasional whimsical scarf. You can read more about my philosophy and theories on novelty yarn here.

FO: Skinny Eve Scarf

Cross posted at Sally Comes Unraveled and Year Long Gift-A-Long.

Here is Poncho Pig making his modeling debut. Just imagine if I made a scarf that actually fit him.

As I mentioned earlier I left my knitting bag with most of my current knitting projects at my parent's house last week. So I had no choice to cast on something new. Fortunately, I had something on my list of Christmas gifts to make.

I bought some Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande Paint at Hill Country Weavers last fall. I probably could have made this scarf a little wider, but I wanted length over width. It only took me a little more than one and a half skeins in colorway 8817. I also used the wooden US size 8 knitting needles I got in my Knitters Scavenger Hunt package.

This is the same ribbing I used in this scarf and this scarf. I'm not sure if it's technically the Brioche Rib or the Eve's Rib. (Hence the name.) I used the stitch I found in this pattern. It's a great stitch, and I love how it looks with the hand painted yarn. I also like the way it pooled diagonally.

Don't Hate on the Fun Fur

I'm including a bonus WIP, a simple fun fur scarf out of Lion Brand Fun Fur Stripes. The yarn was provided from a friend from church, who asked me to some scarves out of it.