Tag: scarf

A lovely parcel arrived from France!

Cozy Memories goodies

Look at all these lovely goodies! I recently entered a giveaway on Facebook, when Sonia of Cozy Memories reached 500 Likes. I was very surprised to find out that I’d actually won – and here’s my prize!

I was expecting to receive the festive Mug Rug, shown at the bottom – a lovely organic cotton coaster with room for a biscuit on the side. I was also expecting the scarf, which I chose with a voucher that was part of the prize. I wasn’t expecting the matching square coaster, the lovely handwritten card, and the delicious tea bag! The scarf came in a lovely hand-dyed drawstring bag too, which looks to be just the right size for storing my tarot cards.

Cozy Memories Scarf

Best of all – everything is made by hand, with natural materials. The linen scarf is dyed with Sicilian Sumac, sourced locally to Sonia, and the colour is a gorgeous grey-toned purple. I had a really hard time choosing which item I wanted from her shop, as everything is so lovely! I was very taken with this zipped pouch, dyed to the same colour and decorated with a ginkgo leaf.

Cozy Memories scarf

In the end I decided to choose something that I could wear often, and that would fit in with my wardrobe. I have a lot of clothes in variations of black, grey and purple, so this scarf will go with all of them! I especially like the variations in the dye that you can see in the photo above. They add a lovely depth to the fabric, and a reminder of the natural dyeing process.

In the spirit of paying things forward, I’ll be having a giveaway on The Eternal Magpie Facebook page, when I reach 100 Likes. Now I just need to choose something that I think people would actually like to win!

Knitting: works in progress

Jillybean shawl

As my sewing things in the Shed are gradually being packed away, my focus is shifting across to knitting. This is a Childry shawl, knitted in Jillybean‘s Knot Another Granny Yarn. I’ve just reached the soul-destroying part, which is the row where you triple the stitch count to make the ruffle. Each row now takes about half an hour to knit… but it does mean that the end of the shawl is in sight!

Colinette shawl

This one is another Childry, in a long-discontinued Colinette yarn. I don’t think this one’s going to be as big as a shawl (it’s only about six inches long at the moment), but I think it’ll make a nice little neckwarmer.

Striped Tank

These colours aren’t quite right – it’s a lovely maroon and dusky pink combination. The pattern is Echinacea, by Rita Taylor. You’ll notice that mine isn’t exactly the same as the one on Ravelry. I utterly loathe doing colour work, so after only a few rows the flowers were unravelled and transformed into stripes. Eventually this will be a lovely square-ish tank top to wear at work.

Forest Scarf

This Kidsilk Haze Stripe was originally bought to make a jumper. After eighteen months I’d only knitted three inches of the first sleeve, because knitting complicated lace in mohair that’s impossible to unravel turned out to be a really bad idea! So now it’s almost turning into the scarf pattern that’s printed on the ball band. I say “almost” because the borders up the sides of the scarf are supposed to be in moss stitch, but I seem to have been knitting them in garter stitch for quite a while. Given that I can’t see where the change happened amidst the fluff of the mohair, I’m going to make the executive decision that it doesn’t matter!

Golden Cowl

This one’s my new favourite. I bought the yarn on Saturday, wound it up into a ball (all one thousand metres of it!), and started designing straight away. It’s eventually going to be a lovely little golden cowl for a Christmas present. In fact, I’m hoping there’s going to be enough yarn to make two, as I already don’t want to give this one away!

The nice thing about having a lot of knitting on the go is that I can pick and choose depending on the state of my hands and the length of my concentration span. The nice thing about a lot of it being very simple knitting is that it frees up my mind to think about other things, while my hands just take care of the stitches. (Mostly. When they’re not knitting garter stitch instead of moss stitch by mistake.) At the moment I’m thinking about cowls and mittens and interchangeable lace patterns, and maybe a little booklet to show them off. We’ll see. For now I just need to make sure that I’ve got enough knitting available to keep me as sane as possible during the house move.

My first handspun yarn!

Plied handspun yarn

Well, it took me long enough, but today I took my singles off the drop spindle, and turned it into yarn! I wound it off onto a plastic bottle which took the place of a nostepinne. I was then able to use both ends of the same yarn, and ply them together with the spindle.

My first handspun!

And here it is – my very first ball of handspun yarn. A whole ten grams of thick-and-thin, funny-coloured, badly spun, badly plied hand made yarn!

Little Mikey's Monstrous Scarf

I wasn’t sure what I’d be able to knit with such a little amount of yarn. (I wasn’t able to spin any more because the spindle needed to be emptied before the spinning workshop that’s running next week.) It turned out that Little Mikey was in need of a scarf, so I thought my monstrous handspun would be the perfect yarn! I used my Simplest Scarf in the World tutorial, with two 5mm needles and one 12mm. It came out just long enough, and I’ve saved the last couple of inches of yarn as a memento.

I have to say that ticking the “my handspun” box on Ravelry was very satisfying. I hope I’m able to make a lot more!

Spoonflower Scarf

Portwrinkle

This is a photo that I took in Portwrinkle, Cornwall, in June 2010.

Spoonflower scarf

This is how a part of it looks printed onto silk crepe, by Spoonflower.

Not as saturated as I would have liked, but given that the original image wasn’t quite at a high enough resolution for me to be able to mess with it too much, I’m really pleased with the way it’s come out!

Next time (and there will be one), I’ll have the image printed onto Spoonflower’s silk cotton blend. It’s much lighter, with a higher sheen, and I think it’ll show the colours better than the crepe which has a matt finish.

The image is 36″ (96cm) square, which is about the smallest size that works as a neck scarf once it’s folded in half. I think this will be better in the silk cotton too, as it’ll drape better around the neck. The silk crepe’s a bit bouncy! If I was a sensible, patient person (stop laughing at the back!) I’d have sent off for swatches first, but then I wouldn’t have had the finished scarf back before Christmas.

Now I just need to decide on the best way to hem it, and then I’ll take some photos of the finished scarf!

Beaded scarf – sneak preview

gemstone beads

Remember the Blackcurrant Surprise fabric I dyed back in August? The one that came out a lovely shade of grey? Well, it turned out to have another surprise in store for me. I’d folded it up and put it away while I decided what I wanted to do with it… and when I got it out, it had changed colour again! It’s now a pretty neutral beigey shade, and it still smells very faintly of blackcurrants.

It’s destined to be divided into three little scarves, each measuring about 50 x 150cm, with beading on the ends. The beads in the photo are all semi-precious stones. Smoky quartz on the left, moonstone in the middle and labradorite on the right. The sterling silver ring in the middle is set with a 12mm labradorite cabochon, and it’s adjustable so the scarf can be styled in different ways.

I chose the smoky quartz because its brown tones blend nicely with the fabric, but now I’m not sure whether or not it’s too dark. Perhaps once the beads are more spread out, with all three colours sprinkled in together, it won’t look quite so dramatic.

These are going to be Christmas presents, so  won’t be able to show you the finished scarves for a little while. In the meantime though, I do have some plans for these pretty little adjustable rings, so watch this space!

Knitting catch-up

Luxury Tweed Scarf

Look, I have been doing some knitting, and I’ve finally finished a few things! This is Paul’s scarf, which I started when we got back from Waltz on the Wye. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed, and it sort-of-almost matches Paul’s Felted Tweed hat and fingerless gloves that I knitted a few winters ago.

Luxury Tweed Scarf

The pattern is Yarn Harlot’s one-row handspun scarf, and it took two skeins of yarn to make it roughly waist length. I wanted a pattern that was reversible (because it bothers me when you can see the back of a scarf), and one that was very easy to remember so I could just keep knitting without having to think too much. Sadly I didn’t manage to get it finished before Paul went to Canada, but it turns out that Ottowa’s warmer than Reading, so it didn’t really matter.

Marian (pink)

This cowl is a direct result of the fact that the yarn (Rowan Biggy Print) wouldn’t fit into my new tidy stash. So I decided to knit it, and move it into the “Someone Else’s Christmas Present” pile instead. Much more satisfying.

The pattern is Marian by Jane Richmond, with a slight modification. My only 15mm circular needle was longer than specified, so I cast on 65 instead of 45 stitches, and kept going until I’d used up three and a bit balls of yarn. You can either wear the cowl as-is, like a great big scarf that can’t fall off, of you can double it over and wear it like a giant neckwarmer.

Marian (thunder)

I liked it so much that I made another one. This got rid of an ill-fated cardigan that I’d knitted but never worn. Much nicer!

(The dress, by the way, is Simplicity 1755, just waiting for its collar and buttons.)

Stef’s Silk Scarf

Stef's Silk Scarf

Okay, so I did manage to get a little something done in between my increased hours at work. This was an extra little birthday gift for my mother-in-law.

I dyed the silk with tea, which came out a little bit paler than my previous experiment, but still a lovely colour. Very interesting on the silk too, as the tone seems to change in different light.

Stef's Silk Scarf

I hemmed all four edges by hand, using teeny-tiny slip slitches. Each corner has an equally teeny-tiny briolette bead dangling from it. The gemstones are labradorite, and the facets catch the light beautifully.

Stef's Silk Scarf

Each end of the scarf is embellished with leaf rubbings. Done using Inktense pencils, they picked up the detail of the leaves beautifully. Appropriately for a silk scarf, the leaves came from the mulberry tree at the Museum of English Rural Life.

Stef's Silk Scarf

Because no scarf is complete without a scarf ring, I set a matching faceted labradorite cabochon into one of Kernowcraft’s new easy-to-set rings. Because the band is adjustable, it’s perfect to use as either a scarf ring or to wear on your finger.

Stef's Silk Scarf

And here it is!

I’ve also been working on a tie-dyed turmeric scarf for myself. I did wear it last week, but I haven’t hemmed the long edges yet, so it needs a little bit more work. I’m so pleased with how Stef’s scarf ring turned out, and how incredibly easy it was to make, that I’m thinking I might need a brass and labradorite one for myself…

A couple of scarves

Loopy Cowl

I think this is the last project I finished in 2011. I started knitting it on Christmas Day, having been asked by my mother-in-law to bring a pair of 5mm needles to dinner with me. Somewhat confused, all became clear when I opened my gifts to find two balls of Rowan Felted Tweed and two books of knitting patterns!

This is Loopy Cowl by Rachel Proudman. It’s made up of eight strands which aren’t i-cord, they’re simply knit flat and allowed to curl up on themselves. All the strands are seamed together, then the seams are covered by another strand. I think you’re supposed to wear it with the seams at the back, but I quite like it at the side like this. Even better with a blingy brooch pinned to it, I think.

You need two balls of Felted Tweed because you’re knitting with two strands held together, although you only use around 70g of yarn. Not quite enough to risk buying only one ball, but enough left over (hopefully) to make a pair of matching gloves, or perhaps a little hat.

Moss Stitch Scarf

This enormous beast is the biggest scarf I’ve ever made, and also one of the quickest. Knitted in Rowan Big Wool and Noro Blossom on 15mm needles, I finished it in two evenings and it’s more than two and a half metres long!

Should you happen to need a pattern for a giant moss stitch scarf, I’ve added it to the tutorials section. Perfect for the silly snowy weather we’ve got going on at the moment.

Gone to a good home.

When I posted a picture of my experimental feather & fan scarf, Sara left a comment to say that she was coveting it. I have more scarves than I know what to do with, so it’s now hers!

By a happy coincidence, she’d already bought the perfect scarf pin, for holding it in place. It’s by South4th on Etsy, who makes all sorts of beautiful wooden pins. I think this little bird is my favourite.

Sara’s also hanging out on Etsy – you can find her at Jombolom, where she makes beautiful quality cards.

Again, I think this little bird is my favourite: