Drifting Pleats - first, but not the last!

I just finished knitting my very first scarf from Lynne Barr's book - Drifting Pleats - and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience! The end product is not too shabby, either!

I used a wonderful handspun single-ply wool/silk - Single-Dyed Phat Silk Phat from La Lana Wools. I knit the scarf using Bryspun plastic needles.

There are more details on my blog, including more photos!

Needles to say, I'm already scheming my next project from this book :). Did you know that Melanie Falick has a gallery of "New Scarves" on her blog? All 27 scarves in a convenient layout, so we can see them side by side instead of flipping back and forth in the book!

Getting Started

Hello all. I've been happily browsing the book since it arrive a few days ago, trying to decide where to start. I decided to ease myself in gently with 'Shag', using a very nearly complete ball of left over Debbie Bliss 'Maya' (since it worked so well for Helen). Apologies for the poor photo - dark green is never easy to photograph well, and artificial light really doesn't help. This is my second attempt, the first having been ripped out late at night because it didn't look right, and I was too tired to work out why. So far this time it's going smoothly, although it's mystifying my husband.

I have also set myself the challenge of seeing how many scarves I can knit from the book without buying new yarn. I'm afraid the answer may well be "most of them".

Aria

I've been looking for a yarn to use for a scarf for my god-daughter for a while, with Christmas in mind. She's allergic to all the animal fibres and I knitted her a cotton one with some lovely Interlacements yarn a while ago, but I wanted something softer and more eveningy.

An lys was having a splendid clearout of Rowan yarn and I came across vast supplies of Natural Silk Aran, which is silk, linen and viscose. I'd used it once before and loved it, but hadn't been able to justify buying it again. When I found it at half-price, I scooped up a supply of black to make something for myself and then went back a couple of days later and got a supply of shade 461, which is called Flax and is a silvery pale blue. My god-daughter, being a sensible girl, is very fond of blue.

I swatched a couple of other scarves in the book first: Shag, which I'd already made and wanted to do again, but the yarn was too fine and floppy; and Twisted, for which I found this crisp yarn a bit too unforgiving and thought would be better done in something with a bit of stretch.

On looking through the book again, I came across Aria, which I had mentally allocated to some variegated blue-faced leicester but which I now re-examined. I cast on and whizzed off, and haven't looked back.

This yarn is put up in 50g balls, which only contain 71 yards and I get about nine inches of scarf to one ball of yarn. I'm sure it will stretch in wear. I want to make it long enough to wrap round and round.

As you can see in the second picture, the texture is very floppy and the scarf can be folded in half lengthwise, doubling the frill. I hadn't expected the yarn to be this drapey, and it's perfect.
That's the fifth ball you can see sitting on the top. I usually start to get bored with a scarf some time after I pass the half-way point: I keep holding it up and looking at it, and sighing. I start wondering if it would be all right a little bit shorter. Or quite a lot shorter. But I'm not doing that this time. I think one of the reasons is that I finish a ball of yarn often enough to feel a real sense of progress, and another is the little sense of achievement after each triangle that forms the frill.

I often watch films while I'm knitting and my projects fall into those I can do while reading subtitles, and those which require greater concentration. This one can be done while reading subtitles, laughing and talking, but doesn't get boring.

Wobbly scarf

Hey all, I started the 'stacked wedges' the other day and it seems to be looking good so far!


Yarn details:

• 'Salima' from On Line yarns
• Colour #3 (colour chart here)
• 60% cotton/20% acrylic/15% linen/5% polyamid
• 80metres=50 grams.

I'm using 5mm needles and it measures 13.5cm across. I have five balls of this yarn, so I think I might just keep going until it's all gone, because I can say very honestly that I'm bad at using scraps!

From the pictures in the book, the short rows and garter ridges show up very clearly, but due to the nature of the yarn I'm using, those details are a bit lost in the texture that the yarn creates, but hey, this book teaches us that not everything is 'right' or 'wrong', doesn't it? I've found that not hiding the wraps creates a smoother line that I prefer.

This one is set to become a chrissie pressie for a mate of mine here who definitely doesn't read this blog and so the secret is safe!

Finished Stacked Wedges

I finished the Stacked Wedges scarf a couple of days ago. I'm pleased with it and plan on using it as one of my holiday gifts.



And I've started the Parallelograms scarf. I love the yarn I'm using, Tahki's Chelsea Silk. I think the tweedy look works really well with the two color pattern. I'd like to get this one done this week so I can move on to Aria or maybe Striped Wedges. I did start Striped Wedges but my gauge was way off so I'm looking through stash to find a more appropriate yarn.

Linked Rib and a bit of a Round Up.

I thought I would do a post about the Linked Rib I started the other night. I didn't intend to knit the whole scarf but a friend who had started it said she was having a problem, so I decided to cast on and see how I got on.
I had a bit of a struggle with the needles for the first round, because what I was doing was so unfamiliar. But I just followed the instructions and it all went well, in spite of the large glass of wine you can just see in the photograph. You can read more here.

I went round to see my friend Jean the next day, and found that, far from needing any advice from me, she was sailing on regardless. She's using Noro Silk Garden Lite, and the colours are fitting in with the pattern very neatly. Do go and have a look.

Here is another blogger who is working on knitting new scarves, and another. Jen is making another Linked Rib in variegated yarn, and advocates keeping your eye on the instructions.

I'm not going to pursue my Linked Rib; as soon as I finish the other little bits and pieces I've been distracted by, I will return to Aria, which I haven't shown here yet. I am itching to get back to it.

Easy Wave

Here is my in-progress Easy Wave Scarf. True to its name, this scarf is an easy knit. It's also pretty quick, though I haven't had much time to work on it. For anyone starting it, here are two ideas I found helpful:

-When I am working the four rows of Stockinette stitch on the stitches on the front double-pointed needle, I put point protectors on the stitches on the back double-pointed needle so that those stitches don't fall off.

-When I'm ready to stop knitting, I am sure to finish a full repeat (ending with 2 rows of knit 1, purl 1 ribbing), so that when I start next time, I know exactly where I am (at the start of a repeat).