Wednesday, September 13, 2006

The dance of the seven(teen) veils

Today you will see all my knitted scarves. Our scarf drawer also holds some non-knitted scarves, and 2 that Arthur made. And hats, but we're not counting hats*, today! I counted 13 scarves at first, but then I remembered a few more, and now we're up to 17! I think that's all.

Left to right: Black and grey slip-stitch pattern, which I later turned into a hat for this book; mini not-a-clapper, that is, a narrow scarf inspired directly by Clapotis, but I couldn't be bothered to read the pattern; a scarf I made for Stephen years ago. It's a strand of sock yarn (grey or navy) held together with some teal alpaca I found in a post-yard-sale pile. I knit it one summer when I had a job which involved shoving pages into a machine in batches. While the machine processed them, I knit. Then later I got to proofread the new pages. I changed patterns and colours at my whim. Next up, the brown novelty stuff scarf, and the sensible beige scarf for Stephen; the handspun, bought on Hornby Island, nice-soft-stuff scarf -- way too short, really, but I'd hate to frog it, since it's so soft and mohairy; the recycled sari silk scarf; and finally the green wool scarf for Elaine.

And another batch! These are the ones I found in a big bag just the other day. There is a reason they were in the closet, for the most part!
Left to right:
Ahh, the Cha-cha scarf for Elaine. One ball was not enough, two was way too much. Also, I started in stocking stitch, but then one day I just reversed myself and so the fuzz came out on the other side, and then when I got around to finishing it, I worked in garter stitch. But who cares, really, coz it's all just fuzz and only a kook would study it closely enough to notice! Then the lime-green in Sirdar Snowflake. Never, ever knit with this stuff, that is my advice to you! In the middle is the scarf I knit for my high school sweetheart, who, it turns out, is now my husband! I gave it to him one Christmas, and he lost it New Year's Eve that same year. But he didn't really lose it, he left it at a friend's house, where he found it again the following winter. (Yes, I married him, even after that!) The red one is a ball of mohair, with ends made of some blue stuff I got at the thrift store. I got so bored in the middle of this one that I just put a bunch of holes here and there. Lastly, the 50-grams-of-sock-wool scarf, which now barely fits around Elaine's neck.

And some details: This is the recycled sari silk, done in mitered squares, one after the other. They sort of stretched and became rectangles... This yarn is really heavy! I made a hat, too, which is completely non-stretchy and just sits on my head. No good in the dead of winter, but so pretty!

And the many patterns of Stephen's scarf. It's all pretty reversible. It's fraying a bit at the edges, but it's still a fine scarf. And by now, of course, it's a family heirloom. One can't give such a thing to the Sally Ann.

The boyfriend scarf made from yarn bits I found at home -- must have been my mom's leftovers. Where it's sort of sewn together in the middle, I had used a tiny bit of angora. Okay, so I was young and foolish and didn't quite "get" gauge and weight and stuff. It was obvious it wasn't going to work, so my mom helped me take it out and "fix" it.

The holey mohair. I realised after a while that with those silly holes, this scarf had to stay in the immediate family and was not suitable as a gift. It's actually nice and warm.
And the sock-yarn scarf. Perhaps I can frog this and use the yarn for something else....

These four I found after the initial search. Two moebius thingies made when the yarn proved insufficient for a whole scarf. The summer tweed stole, which is sort of scarf-like -- it's folded in half here, and the red scarf, not long enough for the Red Scarf project, but fine for a kid here!

There's a theme here -- scarves take more yarn than I think! Maybe one day I'll show you the hats made of scarves that were even shorter! (If you have a "scarf" about 18-20 inches long, sew the ends together, pick up stitches along one edge and work in the round, decreasing something like 8 stitches every other round till you are done. Voila, instant transformation from useless, too-short scarf to quirky, high-fashion hat!)


* There's always the Hallowig, though.


2 comments:

  1. That's more than our whole family of three!

    But yours are nice!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's a lot of scarves!

    ReplyDelete

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