FO: Photogenic Scarf

With Multnomah bound off and more research needed before I start my sweater, I found myself without an active knitting project. So I when Dad went to storage with me last week I decided to pull out some FOs, including the Photogenic Scarf.


This was the scarf I started because I needed a "photogenic" project for The Yarn Harlot's visit to Austin, then ended up leaving in my desk at work while I was on leave. It's been languishing for a long time, just waiting to be finished.


I put off finishing the scarf because I couldn't decide how long to make it. I tend to make scarves about five feet long. I'm about five feet tall, so all I have to do is hold it up to get a rough idea of how close I am to finishing. But somehow five feet didn't seem long enough for this scarf. I decided to try for six feet. Then I decided to go all the way, until I used up all the yarn. It was a bold decision that reminded me of the end of "Thelma and Louise". I know that sounds like a weird comparison, but it sounds even weirder when you consider that I've never seen "Thelma and Louise".

I think I ended up with about six and a half feet of scarf.

In the picture above, I had Katie adjust the scarf so you could get an idea of how long it is. Getting the whole thing in the picture was difficult.


Here's Katie with the scarf in the "supermodel pose."

I used the wooden US size 8 needles that I got in the Knitter's Scavenger Hunt Swap, and three skeins of Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Chunky in colorway 16. At one point I had the color listed in Ravelry as "Rain Forest", but Yarndex has it listed as "Lily Pad." I think I'm going to call it Lily Pad.

This is another Brioche Rib or Eve's Rib or Mistake Rib or whatever you want to call it scarf. I slipped every third stitch, then shifted the stitch that was slipped on the next row. This created the nice neat rows of Vs you see on each side.


On Friday I worked on the scarf at the waiting room at the doctor's office. Mom started looking at it, and she put it around her neck at one point. I cracked up when it occurred to me that my scarf was so long that Mom could wear it while I was still knitting it. Right before I completely ran out of yarn, we recreated the moment. I also tried it with Dad, but he blinked. You can see all the photos I took of the scarf here.

After I took this photo, I bound off on the next row. I only had a small piece of yarn left.

After knitting and tinking it a few times, I decided to bind off "in pattern." Basically, I slipped all the stitches that I was supposed to slip in the regular knitting on the bind off row. It kept the end of the scarf from getting stretched out.

I'll leave you with my favorite picture of this scarf. I had Katie use the same pose I used in the picture I took of myself wearing the Entrelac Scarf.


There's a cold front coming, so you may see me wearing the scarf like this in the next couple of days.

I Dream of Sweaters

I'm dreaming of a sweater. Again.

I've dreamed of sweaters before. Remember Decimal? Never happened. I actually swatched Candy, but no luck. (Officially, it's still a WIP.) So I'm not sure how far I'll get with this idea, but I'm hopeful.

I have a *lot* of yarn, but I don't have much in the way of sweater amounts of yarn. But I'm not really feeling most of the sweater amounts of yarn I have.

Like the bright turquoise Jo-Ann Sensations Angel Hair I bought for a sweater a long time ago. Now I don't think I have the guts to wear an entire sweater that color. I think I'd look like a Muppet.

Also, I still have a ton of recycled sari silk left over from this thing, but you see how well that worked out.

And I barely have enough of two colors of Debbie Bliss Angora Cotton for a sweater, but I'm not too keen on the sea green color anymore. It was on clearance at the time, so my color options were limited.

However, I *am* feeling the Jo Sharp Classic DK Wool pictured above. The color is "Viola." The problem is I only have about 1,070 yards, and for a long sleeve sweater in my size, that's not even half of what I need. But it's a decent amount.

So my solution is to make an outrageous stash diving sweater with stripes.

I started getting yarn out of the storage unit Thursday. The process was fun, but it still made me miss my apartment. Dad went with me since I'm too weak to lift all those tubs. I used a spreadsheet printed out with my stash from Ravelry. I'd highlighted some stuff ahead of time to help narrow everything down. I've only looked in three of my numbered tubs so far. I didn't want to spend forever searching through tubs outside the storage unit, and Dad had to go to work after we finished. Dad was very patient with the whole process. On the way home, I explained that we had just been "stash diving."

I considered just using a bunch of single skeins, but I figured I needed something to tie the yarns together. I also considered find a unifying color theme, like all blues and purples, all brights or all warm colors, but I thought I might run out of yarns to use between the color restrictions and the gauge restrictions.

Instead, I decided to use the Jo Sharp yarn is sort of a "base." From there I'm selecting DK weight yarns from my stash that don't clash too much with the shade of purple.*

I have a long road ahead of me. Not only do I need to swatch the Jo Sharp, I'll also have to swatch the other colors and make sure the gauge matches. I'm not going to adjust my stitch count with each yarn change.

And not just any DK weight yarn will work. There may be official Yarn Standards that most yarn manufacturers follow, but there is a lot of wiggle room in those standards. I'm also going to be considering worsted, sport and fingering weight yarns for this sweater as well.

I've just begun to think about the pattern. I wanted to do an Elizabeth Zimmerman seamless construction, but I want a cardigan and all the "patterns" I've found so far are for pullovers. I can use the Elizabeth Percentage System to do more of my own design work, or I could do some steeking. I need to do more research.

Parting Shot
I'm going to leave you with a picture the Multnomah shawl I've been working on. I bound off on Wednesday. It still needs to be blocked, so I'm not calling it done yet.



* - Or is it blue?

From De-stash to Me-stash

Saturday morning I went to Emily's Destash Sale, and I made a haul.


Here's Emily with the cash box. All the stuff at the sale belonged to her, her Mom and her sister.

I was the only knitter when I came by. Emily said a bunch of knitters came right when they opened at 10. Several other random people swung by while I was there, although I think most of them weren't expecting so much yarn.


Let's start with what I didn't buy. I didn't even get a good look at the knitting machine. I didn't want to make Emily pull it out when I knew I couldn't buy it. Besides, it would have been way too tempting. I also passed on the combs, even though they were a good deal. I managed to leave behind some vintage Patons and some wonderfully eighties (maybe seventies) Dazzleaire. Those would have been worth it for the labels alone.


Emily also had some very reasonably priced sock yarn.


I did leave with some of this stuff. I'm not sure exactly what type of yarn this is, but it's from Estonia, apparently. It's kind of scratchy, but the colors were beautiful. When Emily said it was like Kauni, I was sold.

After much debate, I filled my box and left. Here is the yarn I ended up with:


The yarn on the left is Rellana Luna yarn, a self striping wool/acrylic blend with a Noro feel. The middle yarn is Filanda Supersport, a very practical wool/acrylic blend that will be great for baby knits. On the right is my Estonian yarn, of course.

I got some non-yarn stuff as well, including Ecospun, a fiber made out of old plastic bottles, a shawl pattern and a wonderfully retro copy of Knitter's magazine from 1992. I think the magazine was worth the dollar for this old Lily Chin pattern alone.

And of course, there was this:


A fully functional loom for $2. Of course, it's plastic, designed for kids and missing the accessories and directions. But for $2 I can figure it out.

I can't wait to get weaving!

(All my pictures of the destash sale are here.)

The Lego Knitting Machine

It doesn't knit at the finest gauge in the world, but it's pretty impressive considering it's all made of legos.