I mentioned this before, but I had two balls of yarn in my stash that I'd bought on a whim, and now had an urge to make something out of. Since there was so little of it, I thought I'd try making up my own scarf pattern, designed to maximize the yarn I had without risking running out. I was envisioning a more decorative scarf, not so much something for real bulky warmth.
I decided to make a sort of modified seaman's scarf. The ones I'm familiar with (from Stahman's Shawls and Scarves), have a neck band that is ribbed, then two tails - the 'main part' of the scarf - in a lace pattern.
I didn't think I had enough yarn to knit the neck band in ribbing, so I knit it in straight garter stitch (a la the log cabin blanket patches; apparently I'm not over that yet). Initially I started it with the garter ribs crosswise so that I could start it with a provisional cast on, then have live stitches on both ends for doing the tails simultaneously. But I very quickly decided I didn't like the look of that, ripped it out, and started over by casting on 72 stitches (a number chosen more or less at random based on the gauge on the ball band), and knitted the neckband length-wise.
Then instead of having live stitches at both ends, I just had to pick up stitches across both ends to start the tails.
The next thing I tried was knitting both tails at once on a circular needle, my theory being that I could attach one ball of yarn to each tail and knit till I ran out of yarn, to maximize the minimal amount of yarn I had.
I grabbed my Barbara Walker book "A Treasury of Knitting Patterns" (she has 4 or 5; I only own one of them) and looked through the patterns until I found one I liked and thought would work well. I had knit the neck band with a size 8 needle, because that's what the ball band suggested, and that turned out well. I decided to change up to a size 10 for the lacy parts, figuring that would help make the lace more open and ... well, lacy.
A few inches into it, I didn't like the way it was turning out at all. I realize it would have looked different when blocked, but I just thought the stitches looked too big and sloppy, and I didn't think the pattern was working out very well. It looked like the type of thing that only shows itself well en masse ... the narrow band of the scarf tail wasn't going to let the pattern show to its best advantage. I didn't think it was going to look right even blocked.
I ripped that out too, began a different pattern, and went back to the size 8 needles. Much better. The new pattern I chose is called Candle Flame. I was familiar with the Candle Flame shawl and really liked the pattern, so I was happy to find this in the book (although it looks slightly different than the shawl pattern, but still pretty). I wasn't sure how it would look in such a narrow width, and I was pleasantly surprised ... to me it looks a bit like cascading leaves, since I'm basically knitting it upside down.
One other thing I changed was going back to knitting the tails one at a time. This is the second time I've tried knitting two of anything on one circular needle. It was working, but I'm confirmed in my initial opinion that it's just not for me. It's just too fussy for me, I don't have the patience for it. Well, hey - at least I tried it. Twice.
So when I started the tails over, I just did one at a time. I had a pretty good idea by then that running out of yarn actually wasn't going to be an issue after all, so I wasn't too worried about it. And I finished the scarf, and actually blocked it ...
... and viola! My first self-designed scarf. I'm pretty darned happy with this.
This is the first time I've ever blocked anything, because it's the first project I ever finished with a 100% natural yarn that needed blocking (and it did; until I blocked it, those tails just curled up into a long tube). Although I'm very picky about the feel of yarn, most of what I've made has in fact been made from acrylic yarn, for ease of care. The log cabin blanket, for example - I'm not putting that much time into something that large that I'm afraid to get dirty because I can't wash it.
So I finished the scarf, and had almost a whole ball of yarn left, and what did I decide to do? I decided to make a pair of wristlets to go with the scarf. I put some thought to it, and decided I could make them match the scarf by knitting the same pattern over the back of the hand, then having ribbing to keep them snug around the rest of the wrist.
And it turned out great!! I was very happy with this ...
(modeled here by the Dread Reverend). Except that I didn't have enough yarn left to make a second one.
Yeah, you know it's coming. I ordered one more ball of this yarn, so I can finish my matching wristlets. Some stash cleaning out, huh? But it was all good ... for one thing, this yarn only costs $2.98 a ball. And since I didn't want to only order $2.98 worth of yarn when shipping and handling was going to be $6.00 regardless, I made the order worth $6.00 S&H by adding some sock yarn to it.
Hey. Sock yarn I can always use.
So my February knitting project is well on it's way ... as soon as I get my new yarn, I'll finish up the wristlets, and have this quirky little matched set I designed myself. I'm pretty happy with that.
And ... I've started back on Celtic Icon! That really makes me happy. Here's a picture of the front piece I'm working on (unblocked, yet, of course - hence the curling sides).
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