Friday, December 15, 2006

Striped Scarf

I made this for me, more than a month ago. This fall I realized that all I had was a ratty old acrylic pink scarf from when I was 14, and I decided I was a knitter and I needed a scarf.

Yarn: Teseo Divé in color 2822. A self-striping orange/red/brown in 55% wool, 45% microfiber. I used all of 3 balls, including unraveling my swatch. Bought at Mabel's Cafe and Knittery.

Pattern: Mistake Rib stitch from Barbara Walker #1. Cast on a multiple of 4 +3 and K2P2 until the scarf is long enough. Or you run out of yarn (sigh).
I cast on with a long-tail cast-on and cast-off with Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind-off. I think it looks much like the cast-on.

Needles: US 8/5 mm Addi Turbos. I started with 5.5 mm but I thought the ribbing was too loose. The microfiber content of this yarn made it squeak! Squeaky Yarn, what tool of the devil is that? I absolutely could not stand knitting this with anything but shiny metal. Metal needles were fine, no squeak and no discomfort.

Notes: Yeah, it's part microfiber. I don't care. I fell in love with the color, and the feel is really nice, springy and soft too (I'm sensitive to wool, especially at the neck). It's a single ply so I'm sure it'll be pill-o-riffic by next year, but I love it anyway.

A closeup of the mistake rib, which is a very easy pattern and I like the results. It's not quite so assertive as full ribbing.

The yarn self-stripes in random-ish intervals (I used an entire ball until I got to where it was repeating itself). I used Russian joins (water and agitation) to join each new ball of yarn and they blended in nicely, probably because this is a single ply yarn. Also, the colors change often enough that I did not feel the need to match the colors ending and starting a ball.

The scarf's a little short -- I should have bought another ball of the stuff, but the yarn has been marinating in the stash for several months and they didn't even have the color still in stock, let alone the dyelot.

It's a thick scarf yet the ribbing and the springiness and loft of the yarn keeps it from overwhelming me. Soft, warm, fuzzy, and ORANGE! woo!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

beautiful! finally! made something for yourself!

Carrie said...

That's a lovely scarf! Good for you. Isn't it amazing how little knitters keep for themselves?? Happy Holidays!

Anonymous said...

HOW ARE YOU??? HAS THE STORM AFFECTED YOU??

Big Alice said...

Thank you for all the compliments! I'm all blushing now. Yes, I love me some orange. I'm weird like that.

Angela said...

The scarf is really nice! I like the cast-on and bind-off that you used...very clever:) Also, thanks for the link to Mabel's Cafe and Knittery. I like the way she posts her yarns, by fiber, because that's often how I shop.

Ang