Introduction & Parallelograms

Good afternoon to everyone. My name is Ana Maria. I joined the KAL about a month ago but had a hard time finding the book at any of our LYS. I finally ordered it on the web.

I started the parallelograms scarf but instead of using the yarn it called for I am using The Wool Boutique's Elle Merino Brights which I had in my stash. I really like the gradation of colors. It is fun and is knitting up fast.

Of course since I made the fibers change it has a different look to it. But I love it.

Curving Shags

I've had a couple of enquiries from new joiners about the fact that the Shag they're trying to knit has developed a curve.
The first time I started Shag, I found that it curved and I worked out that it was because I wasn't counting rows properly and was sometimes picking up on the same edge as the previous flap instead of the opposite side - the flaps should go / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ but I was going / / / which makes one edge curl, as shown above.
This is how the underside should look:Tante J has some much better photos below that illustrate this. The trick is always to count your rows properly or, failing that, always to do an uneven number of rows between casting off and picking up.

New F.O.

Oiyi, one of our Scarfalongers, has a new FO but she's too busy and tired and happy to post, so go over and see her at her blog.

Shagalicious

You people have really gotten to me. In a good way of course! I never really thought about making Shag until I joined the group and saw the funky Shags you were churning out. So I jumped on the bandwagon!

Using a beloved yarn from my stash, I had to modify once again as it really wants to be knit up on 4mm needles. So I upped the CO to 19 and the rows to 23. I may be taking a bit more time, but I am very happy with the results.

The length of Shag, about 50% complete

Shag, from the back

Shag, close up

more of the colorway

And I am still working on New Wave. It's about 35-40% done.

For more details on my adventures with these scarves, you can see my personal blog, Tante J's Adventures in Knitting.

FO: Chunky ZigZag Scarf

It may have taken longer than expected, but I finally finished my ZigZag scarf (page 122)! I really love how it turned out, too. There were no surprises and the pattern is well-written and easy to follow. I even like the clear reference photographs in the back of the book; so important for this scarf because of the intarsia refresher.


I would definitely knit this visually appealing pattern again, since part of the fun is picking out complementary colors and watching them move to and fro. I tell you what: two skeins of Cascade 128 never looked so fetching! Read more about the particulars of this project at my blog, Yarn Is My Metier.

Two More

I've finished two more projects from Knitting New Scarves -- I tell people that I'm knitting my way through the book!

I got the yarn for this Twisted scarf from white elephant yarn exchange at my knitting guild's holiday party. This was such fun to knit.

When I bought these two balls of yarn, I thought I could use them interchangeably. However, when I balled them up, I realized that they would be perfect for Reversible.

The short rows provide great shaping to this scarf. It sits on my shoulders very nicely.

I'm having a great time with this book. My next one will either be Drifting Pleats or Shawl Collar.

Completed

Completed a scarf from this wonderful book. I used Cascade Yarns Jewel Hand-dyed color 9889 with # 10 3/4 double-pointed needles. The project is over a hundred inches long because I decided to use up two balls of yarns. A great project and I've moved on to the tricorner scarf.

Meandering Wedges finished

I finished Meandering Wedges and I love it. I wore it today.

It's Malabrigo yarn, in Polar Morn. I used nearly two skeins and it's 80 inches long so it can be wrapped round and round.

I think this yarn suits the pattern very well, as it really highlights the short rows: or the short rows highlight the yarn, I'm not sure which it is.

There's a bit more info at my blog, and there's a jigsaw in the sidebar.

Picking Up Stitches

Andersox is getting gaps where she picks up the stitches with Shag. This scarf can look quite different in different yarns, but I don't think I've got any gaps so far.
The only Shag I still have on the premises is one that I knitted with Noro Silk Garden and I've photographed both sides of a flap.
Lynne suggests in the book that you can use a smaller needle to pick up the stitches: I didn't find this necessary but it could be handy.

Sometimes when you knit the first row it can look a bit stretched, but once you've moved on that closes up, and once you're finished altogether the flaps tend to relax anyway, so it should be all right.

If you still have gaps, Andersox, can you post some photos?

For those of you who are new to Knitting New Scarves, the pattern for Shag is available free here. It's the most irresistible scarf I've knitted since the curly wurly of a couple of years ago: I've knitted four already.

Drifting Pleats

Hi everyone,

I've been enjoying seeing what what everyone is knitting from this fabulous book, and finally have enough pictures and information to post what I'm knitting.

I decided to knit Drifting Pleats in early December. When I went shopping for yarn, I had 3 factors in mind, and a fourth was adopted fairly quickly: color, drape, gauge and yardage was quickly added. I couldn't find anything that fit all of the criteria -- yardage was added because I did find a couple a balls that would have fit the first three, but there weren't enough. I decided I could sacrifice gauge and bought Blue Sky Alpaca Silk, in Garnet. The yarn is quite a lot finer than the worsted weight called for in the pattern, and I'm using US 4 needles. I figured I could make some of the width up by adding a pleat, once I got a sense of how the pleats and the drifting are achieved, an extra pleat (or two or three or four) are no big deal.

I love this knitting. This is knitting you have to think about, it's complex without being difficult, and it is so different from anything else I've done. Figuring this out reminds me of when I finally got how to knit stranded knitting with both hands: I had a very hard time getting it, but finally a light bulb went off and my hands suddenly knew what to do. This gives me the same feeling.

Pleat Detail with Bonus Cat Hair

I'm very much enjoying this piece of knitting genius, which for someone who has a strong dislike for making scarves, is saying something!

--Lee

Shag-a-delic

I'm using Berocco Comfort yarn to knit up Shag. I'm not happy with the way the picked up stitches leave a gap along the diagonal, but I'm going to finish it anyway.

Great book!

So nice to be a part of this new knitalong...I just finished a Shag scarf using Blue Sky Suri Merino in a gorgeous terra-cotta color and love how it looks with my green winter jacket. A great way to break up the winter blahs.

The scarf was very easy and satisfying to knit, with lots of quick progress. Next up will be another of the 3D scarves...hmmmm....

Meandering Wedges

I managed to go four whole days without a New Scarf on the needles. I finished the Tahoe Shag on Saturday and cast on Meandering Wedges on Thursday. I didn't wait until I got a set of rosewood 6mm dpns; I just used the blue plastic needles I had. There's nothing wrong with blue plastic, I just find it difficult to knit with long needles these days. Since I got varifocal lenses, I can't see the needles if I have one anchored under my arm; I have to have both needles on my lap and that's easier if they're short or a circ. I can see the needles close to if I take my glasses off, but then I can't see the television, sigh.

It's an accidental combination of Meandering Stripes and Stacked Wedges, because I have 21 stitches but three alternating blocks of right and left. Perhaps Meandering Wedges, since it isn't striped? I like the idea of making it quite long so that it can be wrapped around like Steffi's, although I think mine is narrower. It's five inches wide. It's Malabrigo in Polar Morn, which is a soft white with silvery grey: in the right light, it has lavender tones. It's a very topical colour as it reminds me of dirty snow, but in a good way. Maybe not actually dirty snow, but snow which has been broken up with foot prints and paw tracks. I think it suits this pattern really well.

I like the feeling the short rows give of knitting faster and faster. The scrap of pink cotton you can see in the first photo (click if you can't see it) is there to remind me which is the top side; I switch it after every three wedges.

New jigsaw in the sidebar, for addicts.

You Zig, I'll Zag

As soon as I finished knitting a cabled tweed hat in Cascade 128, I decided I needed an interesting scarf to pair with it. Enter ZigZag (page 122), a wonderfully easy illusion of
hide-and-seek scarfery.


I'm only 3 repeats in but I'm loving it! If you want to read more about the finished hat and the scarf in development, pop on over to my blog, Yarn Is My Metier.

So happy this fantastic collection of scarves came out!