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Friday, November 25, 2005

Dilemma, dilemmas

I am taking part in the International Scarf Exchange again. I really enjoyed it last time - I had huge fun knitting a mad scarf I had designed myself, and received a great purple scarf from a lovely lady in England. This time I have trouble getting into it. I had planned to make another mad scarf but decided that the recipient might not like that, and I;ve been trawling through various ideas trying to come up with something else. I've decided to go with someone else's pattern this time - after giving up on my own design, which I will probably do for myself for next winter, I had three goes at the famous DNA scarf which I had wanted to knit ever since I first found it online in 2004. I had some nice stash yarn that I thought she would like and I fired away. The first time I made so many mistakes that I pulled it out after the first repeat. The second time I decided it was the wrong width (I was using much thinner yarn than the pattern was written for and I had tried to compensate). Then I changed the edgings and tried again. This time I mastered the pattern (there was no way I was going to give up without being able to do that damn pattern properly!!) but decided I just didn't like knitting it! And as I wanted to knit quite a long scarf for her - she likes long scarves - I didn;t want to be stuck knitting someonething I hated for several feet!

Today I have chosen a quite different yarn - different colours, different composition, slightly thicker - and I;m going to make what will probably be an early spring scarf. I bought 300g of it at Lincraft this morning and came home and spent a happy couple of hours reading through various books. I got lots of ideas for future projects (oh great, I needed that!) and I think I have decided on a pattern from Scarf Style - can't remember the name of it off hand but it has reverseable cables on it, another technique I wanted to learn, and I think it will look great in the yarn I have chosen. So I am going to try it out tonight. If this doesn;t work I will have to try something else!!

I've earmarked at least half a dozen scarf and wrap patterns that I want to do in the future. I really love scarves and wraps but I like them to be interesting - I have never worn a plain fun fur scarf and never will! Not that fun fur does not have its place - in scrumbling, for instance.

I haven't blogged much recently because I have been too tired and haven't had a chance to get my hands on the camera to take pictures of things. There's a pair of socks being done in bright, self striping Regia that are nearly 3/4 finished (just about to do the heel on the second one), and I don't think I photographed the last finished pair of socks in an Opal colourway. I've also been doing beading (peyote stitch) and bead embroidery and have stuff there to photograph as well. Maybe this weekend - for once we have little on and might get some time to draw breath. Then I can also photograph the three skeins of gorgeous Helen's Lace that I have acquired - of course every shawl pattern I like takes more than 1200 yards of lace weight, doesn;t it! I am going to try out the pattern that comes with it, with one of them, and thend ecide what to do with the other two skeins.

Saturday, November 19, 2005


Knitting in public with Lynne of Yarnivorous (at the Glen Waverley Uniting Church fete in October) - I was knitting a sock, she was working on a multidirectional scarf.

Who would think that a dog yawning could look so scary?