So, you might be wondering, what is the bundle of frothy blue knitting?!
Well, as you may know, I've been planning on knitting a close friend of mine a scarf. I'd been planning on a winter scarf, so it wasn't really a priority, but she has a big birthday coming up next week, plus I've been waxing lyrical about knitting, so it seems, well, wrong not to knit her something.
A google search on "summer scarf" didn't yield anything that inspired me, so I went back to look at a scarf that struck me a few weeks ago (isn't that pretty), and after a little more research decided that this would be the project - the Lala Scarf from Greetings from Knit Cafe. I had been eyeing the book anyway for the skirt as well as a few other projects including a couple of amazing dresses (not sure if I would actually attempt them for myself) and then I suddenly thought of blue, greenish blue. My friend wears a lot of red, but that seemed too easy, and she looked good in a greenish blue bridesmaid dress she tried for my wedding, and I seem to remember other clothing in this color. Having figured out the color, the whole project came to life in my mind and so I popped down to Purl yesterday and bought four skeins of Madil Kid Seta and the book.
The yarn, I am told, is almost exactly the same as Rowan Kidsilk Haze, which I've been wanting to knit with for a while (my friend Kymm made me a scarf in Kidsilk Haze and it is gorgeous). But they didn't have the colors I had in mind in the Rowan.
I couldn't quite decide on the three colors I wanted and I didn't have much time so I bought four. The tags were not all intact but I believe I got 422 Gunmetal, 486 Country Blue, 403 Aqua and 406 Pearl.
I think these are the three colors I'm going to use:
(I know, the blue isn't very green but I think it will look good on her.)
I struggled quite a bit getting started last night, in part because I was tired and being interrupted a lot, but this yarn is hard! No one else that I've found talks about struggling at the beginning but I ripped out and started over at least five times, at which point I got fed up and decided to just keep going, even though my stitch count wasn't coming out quite right. I couldn't see where I'd made the error, partially ripping out or unknitting is a nightmare with this yarn, and overall it looks ok, I think.
In spite of the frustrations this is an exciting knit, because you really don't see how it is going to come out until the end. I have a feeling I'm going to want to knit this for everyone. The trouble with this blog is that it's hard to give anyone reading a surprise gift, especially if it's something I already knit before, because I do want to include all my projects here. Also, it seems somehow like cheating to give more than one person the same project, even though I know it isn't, and in fact one could have a "signature" gift.
Anyway, I'd love to knit this as a winter scarf too.
In other knitting news, I knit on the subway the other day! Standing! During rush hour! It also appears that I can knit in the car, even if it is about the only thing I can do in the car without getting nauseous (aside from sleeping, which I'm very good at). I think in both cases it has to be very simple - this time I was finishing off the garter stitch mitts. Yes, I am done with the knitting, I just need to seam. I really savored this project and didn't want it to end. This is a pattern I want to knit again too, and could be the perfect subway/car project.
The Clementine Shawlette is going well too. I just started on the third and final ball of yarn, and I have the pattern well memorized now, I even knit some in the semi-darkness of the backyard last night whilst carrying out conversation! Hopefully I didn't screw it up.
Comments