The pattern is called Victorian lace scarf. I saw this on Ravelry, loved it, and was desperate to try it out! I was really looking for a dark green yarn, something luxurious and heavy so it would drape well. Not too dark green like a bottle or pine green, more a vivid, sparkling emerald. A lovely Irish colour in short!
Couldn't find it, even looked through Irish online yarn shops. What's wrong with everyone? Why do all the online places and bricks & mortars offer wools and yarns in the same colours? I don't get it. Or maybe I didn't look hard enough. Any good suggestions for a nicely intense Irish emerald green: please, please, let me know!
So instead of a wool or an acrylic mix I decided to use cotton instead, although I couldn't find a nice enough green in that either. My friend suits the colours of nature's own palette to coin a phrase, - so I picked a lovely rich copper. Well, I call the colour copper, it sounds rather more interesting than plain old 'brown'!
There is just one drawback to using cotton (mercerised or not), - it doesn't block at all - what you got is what you got. Basically. I did try: I stuck fistfuls of pins into the edges, damped it a lot, pressed it vigorously, let it dry for ages, pressed it again to within an inch of its life (grrrh) - all to little avail. I just hope that my friend is happy with how it wears because I have a feeling that the scarf might roll up quite a bit along its length (I'm happy to be corrected).
I'll probably stick with cotton for tops and other items that don't have to lie flat on their own volition. Scarves: un-unh, ain't gonna happen. Not going there again.
Construction technique: I did knit this up to the middle (back of neck) and then started again from the other end, sewing the two ends together as evenly as I could (it was meant to be Kitchener stitch but I realise that I have to practice some more). I didn't want one end to be upside down compared to the other end, the pattern is not suited to that.
Rather than using Kitchener stitch, you can sometimes start with a provisional cast-on for the first side, then undo it to pick up the loops and start knitting down the other side.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for the tip. I just didn't think of picking up stitches from a temporary cast on - I must have been too intent on getting stuck in! I would graft shoulders but definitely not a scarf - your suggestion is much, much better.
ReplyDelete