Thursday, February 21, 2008

Post 134-Variations on a Theme

I knit socks when I need a quick knit fix in the middle of a boring sweater. Apparently I knit scarves when I need a quick knit fix in the middle of a boring sock.

The pattern swatching with the boucle cashmere has come to an end. After about 5 did pattern samples I gave up, nothing was working and I don't want to force the knitting, this yarn just doesn't want to be knitted right now.



In this last sample I tried a feather and fan pattern. Like my friend Valerie said, feather and fan is to knitting what the pineapple is to crochet, a good ole standby. Some day the perfect pattern will come along.

Last year I pick up two skeins of Koigu at Purl Soho after Linda told me about the Chevron pattern in the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book. The idea is to pick two opposite colorways and they will somehow blend and make a great scarf.



It's funny that I bought the yarn at the store of the person who wrote the book, I thought it was cool. Later after I bought the book and read the pattern I realized I needed two skeins of two colors! Rachael and I went to Loopy just after Thanksgiving last year when I heard they had finally gotten in Koigu. I think they are the only store in the Chicagoland area that carries it.



I knew it would be impossible to match the colors so I thought I would get something that would sorta match and sorta contrast and just use all four!



I think the colors look great together. But, thanks to the wonderfulness that is Ravelry, I looked at all the other versions of the Chevron scarf that other people have done. For the most part, I think a lot of people did not use four skeins, it makes a really long scarf, and I just don't want that. So I started to play around with which two of the four skeins would make it into the scarf.






Nope, I didn't like any of the combos above and decided to try the original two skeins I bought. So I started to knit the pattern.



I like it, but I'm not loving it. It's not what I envision and sometimes you don't know how the yarn will knit up until you knit it. If I were in a psychedelic/gypsy phase it would be great. I was thinking the funky yellowy green color that looks like the liquid you find in the little vial in a level has to go. Trying to follow the spirit of the pattern and only use contrasting colors, I pulled out from my stash a skein of Socks That Rock colorway called Pebble Beach.



I bought this yarn several years at Stitches, it looks lovely in the skein but when knitted into a sock, ick, I hated it.



This is better, sorta. The colors definately pop better and aren't so stripy as the original sampler, but I'm not in a blue mood right now. I do know I'm on the right road.



So what better than to add another yarn! So back in goes the funky yellow/green Koigu again. The way the pattern is knitted it was easily adaptable for three yarns. This would work if it was all the yarn I had to choose from, but I haven't balled up or even touched the skeins I bought last year at Loopy. Thanks to Ravelry and a quick post to the Loopy group I found out I was able to exchange the yarn. Today after picking up my car from the mechanic (long story but not as expensive as I thought it might be) I drove over to exchange the yarn.




Now this is loveliness! I knew right away that the multicolored skein was destined to be in this scarf, but it took awhile to and a lot of playing around to settle on the red colorway. I really would have liked a predominantly green yarn but there wasn't a lot to choose from that fit that bill. I'm much happier with these colors and will frog the sampler.
Come to think of, I wonder how the multicolored skein I bought in NYC would look with the multicolored yarn I bought today....

Last night we had a total lunar eclipse and I remembered to photography it.

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