k r o o m (knitting room)

Year of scarves

Much like each year in Chinese astrology having a specific name (Year of the Rat, Year of the Boar, etc.) I named 2003 The Year of The Scarf. That's what I concentrated on making in the autumn and early winter because I wanted to give scarves as gifts. I believe I probably made at least a dozen different scarves. I didn't use any patterns, I just cast on between 8 and 15 stitches, and then knitted, which I prefer to purling. I did attempt some rib variations and basket weave so at the end; I felt like I could graduate from the simplicity of simple scarves to a project that involved shaping (which I did, read about my Suss Saga). Most of these scarves were worked on 15 straight needles.

The first scarf that I made was for me. You can read more about it's various incarnations in my knit bio which chronicles my personal relationship with Knit. This photo is actually a scarf I made with what yarn I had leftover from my lovely black everyday scarf. It's two yarns together: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride in black, and some kind of variegated mohair that ran from black to grey and back again.

These scarves are in random order, although I think this one was in the first five that I made. The yarn is an unbelievable off-white called "sheep white," from Christopher Sheep Farm. I knitted it with a subtle variegated mohair; so subtle that you can't see the colors which were pale pinks and taupe and lavender. I think it's Ironstone yarn in the Bouquet of colors line, but I can't recall its color.. I gave this one to Aleda, my sister-in-law because although she and I relish the same shades of green, when I think of her, neutral tones pop to mind.

My sister Jessica loves green, but I'm not sure which shade exactly, I think she likes them all though. I had a skein/hank of this Wilde Yarns in Moss, a 50/50 mohair wool yarn which I knitted together with another amazing variegated mohair. But this one was more evident than the previous one in Aleda's scarf. The color ranged from purple to green, and there may have been another color, brown maybe? This scarf wasn't as long as the 'girls' wear them these days, so I hoped that J. would love it nonetheless.

It's always hard for me to decide on what to give/make for my step-mother. She's not hard to please, I just don't feel like I know her tastes very well. But I knitted this with aubergine Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride and a skein of Prairie by Manos del Uruguay. While working with the Manos, I fell completely in love. The yarn knits up like a dream, is easy on the hands, and eyes, and so beautiful. Plus, I actually enjoyed the odor of the dye, which I normally don't care for. But this odor was earthy and didn't bother me.

At this point I felt a bit adventurous, like I could try another pattern, which I did. This is seed stitch. And other than being a bit more time consuming than the other scarves, I had few problems completing the pattern. But, I did make one mistake, which I found later and mentioned to Margie, but she said she would never know the difference. I really loved the contrast between the scarf and the color I used for the end and beginning. I cast on with this teal and then used some of it as fringe, too.

Barbara's scarf was another Wilde Yarns selection in cereulean that I knitted together with a variegated mohair: This Ironstone Bouquet in Ombre included jewel tones of gold, fuchsia, purple, and turquoise. I made this one a bit less wide than many of the others because my mother-in-law runs hot, and I didn't want her to be too warm while wearing her Christmas scarf.

	This dark out of focus shot is one of the skeins of Manos that I bought in divine Eclipse. In this scarf for my dad, I alternated two rows of the Manos with one row of Donegal Tweed by Tahki color 815, that I ended up not liking for scarves. The blue, with red tweedy slubs, was scratchy, and probably much better off in a sweater. This was also my foray into the basket weave pattern.
This is how the scarf came out. It's folded into itself, and I decided not to add fringe on the ends, since the fringe doesn't always seem masculine.

	Now for my mother, I made a black scarf and mixed the Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride in black with a skein of Lava (the Manos again). I bought at least 4 or 5 different colors in the Manos. This is just a simple loosely knit scarf. And below you can see that I added long fringe to hers.

	I took more photos of this scarf than any other. It was almost the last one that I made. I chose this gorgeous fuchsia color for my aunt Donna who wears those bright pinks and fuchsias very well. Again, I used the Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride and I mixed it with another heavenly variegated Ironstone mohair in Bohemia that was pink, green, fuchsia, and purple.
I'm not sure that you can tell from the photo that I decided on a ribbed pattern for this scarf. And, I love the BSLP color so much that I may buy more and knit up something for myself, although I'm not convinced that I can wear this color at all. I stay away from pinks and fuchsias because I've a weird mixture of olive-toned skin that's prone to ruddiness.

	Anna's scarf(more later)
Melkellie's scarf (more later)