Well that was a LOT quicker than knitting one

It didn't require any sewing, either.

The weather has been pretty awful lately, rainy and cold but not as cold as winter. I'd been hankering for some lighter spring scarves. In winter I wear a warm coat and tend to like a small knitted scarf (like this or this) to close the neckline. But with a lighter jacket, usually worn open, it's nice to have a bigger scarf that can block the wind without adding too much warmth.

You might laugh, but I was inspired by this rather grotesque designer scarf. (A little more digging revealed that it does come in other colours).

I found this red crinkled knit fabric (t-shirt weight) during our Cabramatta shopping spree. I was so keen that I bought a cheap pair of scissors and did all the snipping on my hotel bed last Saturday night! It doesn't need any hemming - knit fabrics don't fray. The holes have become a little more 'distressed' with a wash and some wearing, but they won't go beyond a certain point (at least, that's the theory). It's more of a deconstructed look than I usually go for but I really like wearing it.

I also have some of the same crinkled stuff in a light olive green, and a piece of a different beautiful dark blue-green knit fabric. That one is not crinkled. I cut holes in a small test piece but wasn't thrilled with the effect. So I think I'll try to crinkle it in the microwave. That should be interesting.

Handspun scarf

If you've been reading this blog for some time you might remember Grandma did some spinning for me.



This started as 200g of merino from Ewe Give Me The Knits in the spectacular 'Moroccan Nights' colourway.



I wish I had done this earlier so Grandma could have seen what I made from it. I enjoyed every moment of knitting this simple 'mistake rib' scarf (cast on a multiple of 5 sts, and k3 p2 every row, slipping the first stitch). I love the way it has come out in subtle stripes. It's a little shorter than I intended, because the fourth ball was coming out as a just noticeably thicker fabric, so I stopped short and kept that ball to do something else with. Maybe something felted.

The yarn varied a lot in thickness, and I took the advice I have seen so many times about knitting handspun - use bigger needles than you would normally for the apparent thickness of the yarn. I tried that for a while, suspected the fabric was still a bit chunky, and went up a needle size (5.5mm, I just went and checked, and realised that by chance I happened to use one of the many circular needles I collected from Grandma's place after the funeral. Those things were springing out of every other drawer and cupboard). I wanted to keep it really soft and light. And it has turned out to be the perfect lighter weight scarf I have been wanting over the last few weeks, when this one has seemed a bit too heavy.

Of course, since the weekend the weather has turned the corner into winter, with a snowy feeling in the air. I'll probably get the blue one out tomorrow. It's going down to minus 3 degrees celcius tonight.



Grandma* featured a few times here over the years. I suspect this might not be the last time either, and I like that. I still have more wool she spun for me.

*not to be confused with my other grandmother - I have a little collaborative project with her that I'll show you sometime soon.

You tried to steal my truck but that's not what this is about

What is it about my scarves and my sisters? About two years ago, a lace scarf I knitted for sister D went missing at a party. And although I had plenty of the wool and was strangely keen to knit the same scarf again to replace it, she just felt too sad about it to have the same one again. We've only recently settled on a replacement project, a lacy tam/beret, pattern yet to be picked. Any suggestions? I have some 4ply Polwarth from Tarndwarncoort put aside for it, but that's not locked in.

A couple of weeks ago, sister E accidentally left her little neckwarmer scarf in the change rooms at Target on a Friday night. She realised pretty quickly, and left several messages about it with staff and answering machines over the course of the weekend. She was so upset and annoyed at herself, and nearly gave me a heart attack with a solemn phone call of the "I have bad news" variety. I was worried it was something awful about one of the kids, so I actually laughed with relief when I heard what the problem was.

We were both surprised it didn't show up at Target, given that more or less the entire staff must have been aware of it. (Apparently when she went to the service desk and started to say, "I left something behind in the change rooms last week" the person there didn't even ask her name, she just said "I know, I got your messages!") So we can only conclude that someone took a liking to that one, too.

The replacement will probably be knit in an evening or two, and I've been able to find enough of the discontinued Cleckheaton Merino Spun floating around in my felting stash. Then I'll just need to find the perfect buttons.

Maybe the colour will keep her warm

Last weekend Mum and I hit Queanbeyan for a special mother-daughter outing. We went to several op shops, had a leisurely lunch, and finally shopped for beads at Benedict House, a lovely 1880s building which has a cafe and several art/craft concerns. That was where we found the wooden beads standing in for buttons on this scarf. Benedict House does have a website but I can't link to it just at the moment because my browser warns me that the site appears to contain malware. Eek.

Thanks to some unsubtle recent hints I knew that Mum wanted a short cabled scarf like the several I made last year. Unfortunately she's very sensitive to wool, and I had trouble deciding what to use. I wavered between Paton's Smoothie (a sort of genteel acrylic) and Lincraft Bamboozle, a cotton/bamboo blend. The Bamboozle won for its incredible softness, though I'm not sure if it will be particularly warm. It just has a cool feeling about it. I guess it's really a summer yarn.

I also wasn't sure about the bright tomato red colour (the second photo probably gets this across better) but thought I could dye it a darker shade later, if Mum wasn't comfortable with it. Turns out she loves the colour and it will look great with a brown coat she's making for herself.

Seems that I was busy doing something close 2 nothing

The raspberry scarflet was a quickie present for my sister, just because it was easy and I thought she would like it. It's the reversible cable scarf again, this time in the sadly discontinued Cleckheaton Merino Spun. And she does seem to really like it. However, this mildly double-chinned model is me.


Last month, no, wait (aieee!) the month before now, I was at their house and showed them the blue cable scarf. My brother-in-law really seemed to dig the concept of the efficient short scarf. I have monstrous guilt about an IOU I gave him in JANUARY for a pair of socks for his birthday - the first pair were a success, and he's hard to buy for - they are in progress and not nearly finished yet. And I was in the scarf zone (ya think?). So I whipped one up in Cleckheaton Merino Supreme (also sadly discontinued). I actually made it a bit longer than I meant to but it seems to work quite well. I've seen him wearing it, around the house even, when he didn't know I was coming over. Anyone who has ever given a handmade gift would know that that's a good feeling.

I know the photo isn't great, but I wasn't about to demand that this tired pair move around to pose in better light.