After having finished the scarves for this pattern quite a while ago, I’ve finally formalized the pattern and am ready to post it. I’m really happy with how these came out. They’re really simple garter stitch scarves, but the border adds a little detail that keeps them from being boring. I will definitely be knitting more of these in the future for gifts.

I’m publishing this as a free pattern on the blog. You can download it from the link at the bottom. There is no gauge or yarn requirement, which makes this a very flexible pattern. You can make the scarves as long or as wide as you want, and the instructions are very simple to memorize.

Scarf 1 was knit in Rowan Felted Tweed, and has become my default winter scarf. It’s incredibly warm and comfortable.

Scarf 2 was knit with Elsebeth Lavold’s Silky Wool, and given to my mother in law for her birthday.

You can download the PDF of the pattern from this link. The pattern is copyrighted, but I’ve given permission to print and distribute it, as long as you don’t make any alterations. I hope you like it! It’s a simple idea but I really enjoy the scarves.

I’ve been in a bit of a funk for the past week or so, and I think it’s because I’ve yet to find a new job. A few weeks ago I left my job, and after my last day we went on a long planned vacation to visit my in-laws. I came home a little stressed and worried about finding a job, and unsure about what the heck I was going to do with myself. It turns out when I start feeling depressed my motivation and creativity levels drop significantly. It all turns out well in the end because I’ve got a potential opportunity that I hope works out, because I’m really excited about it. So yesterday all my creative energies come flooding back again…

I don’t remember what state you last saw this project in, but this is my modification of Jairlyn Mason’s Square Cake. I’ve put beads in the knit purl columns every four rows, and put a stockinette ground cabled braid instead of the diamond knit/purl pattern. I just couldn’t stand doing too much knit/purl; it just hurts my hands and I sure loves me some braids. The yarn I’m using is a handspun merino, and I must say I’m really pleased with how it’s knitting up. Can’t wait to finish it and carry it around!

I think it’s about time I finally wrote about these. These are my Tofutsies socks, with a bit of lace at the cuff. Unfortunately the lace clashes with the color, but I was too lazy to rip it out and do something more fitting. These were great to work on while on vacation, and I finished them at my mother in laws a few weeks ago. I still love this yarn!

I started this project about a month ago, and man do I need to stop stalling on it. This is for my Mom’s 50th this year, and it’s a simple faroese shawl. The top part of the picture shows one side with the shoulder shaping, and you can see beneath that the center back panel. This is a slightly improved version of the design I used for my handspun faroese shawl. This one is in garter stitch, the other was in stockinette. It’s knit from the neck outward, and I did a little short-row shaping at the neck band so it would transition smoothly once I started the increases. I’m very pleased so far, and now just need to make the long haul to get it finished by July (6-7 skeins left!).

Keep an eye out for some spinning content in the next week. Saturday I’ll be at the NH Sheep and Wool festival, and I’ll be keeping my eye out for some pretty spindles and new tools.

The first time I ever knit with Southwest Trading Company’s Tofutsies I really fell in love. Since then I’ve worn the socks many times, and they have worn up much better than all the rest of my handknit socks. I’ve come to the conclusion that merino is not for socks despite its prevalence among sock yarns, but Tofutsies sure is.

These socks are very simple with a vine lace pattern and a traditional heel flap. This is my favorite way to knit a sock, and my only regret about this sock is that the stitch pattern doesn’t fit with the yarn. You can’t really see what’s going on there because the colors are too busy. I continued to knit it anyway because I didn’t feel like ripping back, but maybe some day I’ll knit this cuff with a more suited color.

I really can’t wait until both pairs of these socks are finished. If they’re anything like my first pair of Tofutsies socks I will probably end up falling in love with them just as much.

Today I’ve got just a quick post on something that I finished a couple of weeks ago. When I went on my birthday trip to buy fiber with my husband I saw some linen yarn at the store. I’ve been wanting to knit with linen yarn for the longest time, and my local yarn store doesn’t generally have 100% linen. When it came to knitting it, I decided to improvise a hand towel. I’m really happy with the results, despite the fact that it’s just slightly thinner than I’d intended.

Unfortunately in the picture you can’t see the stitch pattern very well, but it’s a simple stockinette/garter basketweave. Basically I knit the front tab at the top, increased a lot over 6 garter stitch rows, started the stitch pattern, decreased a lot over 6 garter stitch rows, and finished with a back tab. Sew together and add buttons and voila! What you can’t see here is that the towel actually folds and goes up the back to create a doubled loop piece. Since it was so thin I just knit until I had only a little yarn left before finishing it to add more fabric.

I’ve got a lot of things to catch up on that I’ve been working on but haven’t yet written about, so I think what I’m going to do is write several posts in the next few days. I finally took the time to take some pictures today while listening to podcasts. I keep using the lack of sun as an excuse, but I’ve just had a hard time getting motivated to blog, so here goes an attempt at revival…

I’ve decided to try doing at least one non-knitting non-spinning craft every Sunday, and without really planning it last Sunday I chose dyeing. I’ve had these two skeins of handspun white merino lace weight yarn for a while that I’ve been meaning to dye. My dyeing methods are very haphazard because I just don’t have the patience or the scale to be meticulous and specific. Basically I fill my dyeing pot with lots of water, pour in some vinegar, mix some dye powder with a little water and pour that in. Then I put my soaked skein into the dye pot and turn up the heat. I do have a digital thermometer whose probe I use only for dyeing to make sure it doesn’t go above 180 degrees, and generally I go for a half hour around 180. This time I really wanted a green yarn so I took a bit of my blue and a bit of my yellow and mixed them together. It’s been a while since I dyed yarn, so my memory of how much dye powder I normally use was a bit vague, and the results of my yarn prove that.

What seemed to happen was that there was so much dye in the pot that it took barely ten minutes for the yarn to soak up the dye and set. I did a thorough rinse of the yarn afterward to ensure it had taken hold, and boy did it. This quick dyeing also gave the yarn a really unique quality that I really like. It looks slightly variegated, but that’s mostly because the dye stuck fast to the very outside of the yarn, and didn’t sink in quite as much towards the core. It gives it a sort of shimmery look that I totally could not have predicted.

There was some extra dye left in the pot, so I stuck a little red in with the tiny bit of green and finally added some color to my sampler of handspun angora (ignore the darker red as those are just the ties of a different yarn).

Then I had a teeny bit of that left, so I put a very small amount of purple in and grabbed some white merino roving I had. I had the merino roving soaking in the bathroom sink, and didn’t have a way to transport it without making a mess on the floor. I stuck a trivet and the dye pot on the bathroom floor for easy transport. As soon as I put it in the dye absorbed into the fiber as much as it could and the water was white. Completely not what I was going for, but in the end I think it will make a nice yarn. I only stuck it back on the stove for another 15 minutes to make sure it set, and my roving only came out a tiny bit matted. Definitely easily fixed by predrafting it before spinning.

And another picture just ’cause it’s purty.

I started this project a week or two ago inspired by the KnitWiki to create a SpinWiki. On the Spindlers Ravelry group, I find myself and other members explaining the same concepts over and over. I personally don’t mind this, and consider it a part of forum culture. New people arrive and need the same information as everyone else. However, I thought that perhaps having a place online with answers to their questions might help some people. I know there will always be those that need direct help and answers to their questions.

So I’ve finally opened up the SpinWiki publicly after spending quite a bit of time getting the basic structure up. I wanted to have all the policy, copyright, and help information all ready before opening things up. I also wanted to make sure I understood how things worked, and that I had some idea for a system in place for a community to form. I’ve had a little activity from others, but so far not a lot of information being added. I’ve been doing what I can when I’m feeling reasonably intelligent, but the articles I’ve added will definitely need more. Hopefully I can slowly build up a steady number of contributors so we’ll have one place where we can learn more about spinning.

I had a wonderful time on Saturday shopping at my local fiber store. Thanks to my awesome husband I got a lot of nice new fibers to try. One of them I chose specifically for the Spindlers group challenge on Ravelry, so I had to start spinning it right away. This is some beautiful hand-dyed silk cap that I thought perfectly fit the theme “Stirrings of Spring”.

If ever you have been told by your fiber or spindle just what you are going to spin, then you will know what it was like for me to start this “yarn”. I pulled out all my available spindles, which were all fairly light weight. I like spinning lace so this was fine with me, but I was not intending to spin quite as fine a yarn as I got. I tell you, as I was drafting out these long silk fibers I felt almost as if the spindle and silk were conspiring against me to do as they wanted. I thought to myself that even if I were to ply this thin-beyond-laceweight yarn it would be too thin to consider knitting. I like lace but geeze!

Another thing that makes this yarn unique is that it’s a very low twist despite being so fine. The fibers are so incredibly long (6″ and up, you can imagine how far apart my hands need to be to draft it) so they hold together very easily. This is perfect for embroidery thread, because I won’t have to ply and it will retain much of its sheen. It’s a very unique spinning process, I must say.

I’ve done some embroidery in my time, and in fact embroidery was my craft of choice for a good year before I decided to learn how to knit. I don’t like it as much as knitting as it doesn’t have that same meditative quality. However, it does satisfy my need to create, and I can get a bit more artistic with it than with knitting or spinning. It was decided then; this “yarn” that I was spinning officially became thread.

I’ve completed what seem like one or two layers of silk cap into what you see above. I leared my lesson with this first length of thread, and taped a tube of cardstock to the shaft of the spindle before starting the second batch. Winding all that thread onto a more manageable cardstock bobbin took forever, and I wasn’t planning to do it again.

I’ve been plotting, and scheming, and thinking about what I’m going to embroider with it. I’m thinking a mostly monochrome piece with some leaves and stems. I have some nice even weave linen that’s easy to embroider on, and we could use another decoration for the wall. Hopefully I can get some pictures up of my embroidery doodles as I tested out this thread. It works great! There is lots of shine with just a hint of texture.

I finally brought out the hat tonight, hoping it was going to look penitent. I’m not sure whether or not it did, but I certainly had more motivation to put time into fixing it. I’d originally started this hat bottom up, cut off the ribbing to pick up stitches and knit down again. I wanted a hemmed bottom with some short row shaping to bring the hem around the ears a little lower. Well I fudged that up by making the hem too high after already sewing down ripping back up and sewing down again. It was at this point that it went into the basket for I don’t even remember how long.

Another 2am finished object, and it always seems to be on Saturday night. Anyway, I started undoing my sewing to an old production of Sense and Sensibility, and got to working on a ribbed edge. Back to the beginning again. I don’t know why this hat should have been so much trouble, because there really isn’t much to it! I’ve done all manner of complicated knits, but this is my third and only successful attempt at knitting a hat. I think the one thing I should have done different was to knit the ribbing on a needle size smaller. Glad to have this one done and off my needles!

Oh yeah, and the 2am part explains why I look so horrid in the picture. I just wanted to get it over with!

Time and swatching have really paid off. A lot of times when I’ve got an idea for something I want to knit, I try to go the quick way out. I knit the piece just how I think it should work, and there’s always something off or something I need to creatively work around. I have a hard time making myself just swatching multiple times before I get it right. This time I took the time I needed to look at stitch patterns, and wait until I found just the right thing. Yesterday I decided to try to work up something on my own based on some of the stitch patterns I’d been looking at. After several swatch attempts, and a few charts and re-charts I finally worked out a stitch edging that I really really like.

The first (green) scarf will be based on a stitch pattern right from an old book, and the second one (as seen above) will be based on something inspired from similar stitch patterns. I really wanted something simple, and different enough from the first one. While doing this I learned a really cool technique that makes those little loops on the very edge. At the start of every row you do a YO, K2TOG to create the loop and keep the same number of stitches. It’s a bit tricky to figure out how to do a yarn over at the beginning of a row, but very easy once you see it.

I just can’t wait to finish these! I’m totally enamored by the simplicity and texture, and they’re damn easy to knit.

Because of a new scarf idea, I’ve been scouring the internet and what books I have for old lace patterns. I should be more specific and say that I’ve been searching for garter stitch lace edging stitch patterns. During my search I’ve realized that I don’t have nearly enough old publications about knitting. The little taste I got from the library book sale isn’t enough, and some of the internet sources I’ve found have really inspired me. Some were new to me, and others I’ve gone back to many times before.

I’ve looked through old knitting patterns, and pictures of “vintage” style patterns but the vast majority of them really don’t excite me. Anything post-1930s is just too recent, and the styles of the clothing really don’t suit me. Who am I kidding, the style of any non-contemporary knitwear generally doesn’t appeal to me. What really gets me interested are the stitch patterns, knitted household items, clothing accessories, and the very way in which they write the patterns to begin with. If you browse through some old knitting publications you’ll see how far we’ve come in standardizing how we describe these stitches we work. Even today there’s a small learning curve (although sometimes not so small!) to reading a pattern. Imagine the learning curve in days past! Old patterns have no gauge and sometimes have a yarn specification such as “Berlin, or any other soft wool”, refer to “make one” which can sometimes be a yarn over and sometimes a closed increase and the pattern will not explain which it is. Fortunately some people have helped interpreting some of these old patterns and put them online.

• Knitting-and.com’s Free Patterns

• Antique Pattern Library - Scanned public domain full publications!

• The KnitWiki

• The Art of Knitting 1897 - Rewritten and swatched by Cindy

• And a bunch more

I’m not going to go into too many details about this project I’m working on, because I kind of want it to be a surprise. I’m going to make a couple of different versions. The first version I’ve already started knitting away, but I still need to figure out what lace edging I want to use for the second. When I’m done I’ll write up a little pattern for them and post lots of nice pictures. It’s funny because this pattern idea really goes back to something I tend to do time and time again: stuff that you can do with any yarn, and any sized needles.

The more I knit on this scarf and the more I look at it, the more I just love the textured simplicity.