Sunday, January 30, 2011

Off the needles: 2 scarves for 2 little girls

These 2 scarves are for a friend's daughters. The caterpillar scarf is for the younger one who loves all things pink. The pattern is another Morehouse Farm critters scarves pattern. The yarn is from my very old stash. It's Unger's Roly-Poly acrylic yarn from Belgium.




The older girl likes purple and spiders. I call the design "Six Secret Spiders" because the spiders knitted into the stockinette background are rather subtle.



I used a graph from a mitten pattern I found online and picked out the spiders in purl stitches. If you hold the scarf from a little distance, you can make out the spiders, but if you look closely, they seem to fade into the other stitches. The yarn is one strand of Deborah Norville "Serenity" sport weight and one strand of Lion Brand Microspun. Both have a very soft hand. I was so concentrated on getting the spider chart right that I forgot how much stockinette edges roll. Even light ironing didn't stop this tendency completely so I added a crochet edging to stabilize the sides.

Off the hook: 4th rainbow scarf



Here's yet another rainbow crocheted scarf (7th scarf I've made by this pattern). I made this one for my friend Carol Handy who owns the Shuttles, Needles & Hooks yarn shop in Cary, NC. She gave me Noro yarn to make it so I got the try out the pattern in a different yarn this time

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Off the needles: easy shrug




This shrug pattern is so easy! It's basically a long rectangle in stockinette stitch with a few rows of garter stitch at the cuffs. The pattern is "Alpaca Brush Shrug" from a leaflet that I bought at the Knitting Addiction shop at Kill Devil Hills, NC. I knit it out of Lion Brand's Amazing in the wildflowers colorway. There was too much murky brown in this variegated yarn for my taste, so I used more skeins and cut out the color runs that didn't appeal to me. I used the leftovers to crochet a scarf (photo later).

Off the hook: turquoise beret




According to my daughter, floppy berets are big fashion this season. Here's the 1st of 2 that I've crocheted for her. The pattern is Phannie, a free pattern from Berroco, and the yarn is Plymouth's Encore, a wool/acrylic blend.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Off the hook: another rainbow scarf

I've gotten many compliments on the colorful crocheted scarf. Just finished another one last week and gave it to my friend in Carrboro today while she treated me to lunch as a thank-you for the scarf. She was wearing it when we stopped in at a Chapel Hill yarn store where she received compliments on it. Everyone loves the colors and can't help commenting on it. I was wearing mine last week in a yarn store in New Bern, NC, and people in the shop thought it was Noro yarn. I think Bernat has a big hit with this yarn (Mosaic) and esp. this colorway (Psychedelic). I'll be making a 3rd scarf with same yarn and same pattern for my daughter. But not until I get the beret and scarf off the hooks that I'm crocheting for her this week.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Off the hook: cranberry red scarf



Here's a scarf I crocheted from new yarn. It's Plymouth's Encore, a blend of wool and acrylic. This is my go-to yarn for when I want something nicer than plain acrylic, but still want the item to be easy to care for. I used Deborah Hedges' "Lattice Scarf" pattern, which my current go-to pattern for crocheted scarves. This is the 5th one I've made from this pattern. After the 1st set-up row, you just repeat row 2 till you get the length you want. This example used 2 skeins of Encore.

When I saw this rich cranberry red, I thought this would be a perfect color for my sister-in-law to wear. I gave it to her at our family's New Year's Eve gathering. Based on the weather we've been having lately in North Carolina, I think she'll have a lot of use for a warm scarf.

Off the needles: Lacy Scarf




Another scarf using up old stash. This yarn is Columbia-Minerva Amy II, a 50% wool, 50% Orlon blend. The color is bone; the skein is 1 ounce weight. Not sure how old this yarn is, but the original price on the label says 95 cents and I bought it marked down to 44 cents.

The pattern is "Vine Lace" from Barbara Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns (pg. 218 in my Scribner's edition). It's one of those simple patterns that create impressive results. Only a 4-row repeat & 2 of the rows are purl rows.

I gave this scarf to my nephew's girlfriend along with the fox scarf. She loved both and I was glad to pass them on. It's nice to be knitting again for people I know. But I've already started on the 2011 charity knitting (photos later).

Off the needles: Fox Scarf




Another stash busting project finished. This is another Morehouse Farm pattern from their "Critters Scarves" collection. It reminds me of the fox stoles that ladies used to wear. I remember as a child sitting in a church pew behind one of the ladies who wore one. It was creepy, yet fascinating, staring into the glass eyes of the dead fox. This knitted one is much cuter.

The yarn is from a sweater that I started decades ago & never finished...and never would finish. Not sure what the yarn is, but appears to have at least some mohair content. The rust color was perfect for a red fox. I gave it to my nephew's girlfriend on New Year's Eve. She's a new knitter and I was so happy that the fox found an appreciative home.