Maryla's scarf

This was really fun to knit.  I made a lot of neckwarmers (in the round) in this pattern, called Candleflame - developed by a lady called Julia Allen.  I include the Ravelry link to the cowl.  Julia asks that the pattern is not used commercially.  It is free to download from Ravelry, and use for your own personal use.

Here is a pic and a detail shot:

 

I used Jaeger Matchmaker merino wool, it is lovely and soft and a bit squishy too!  I bought it at Wools and Crafts in Blackstock Road, Finsbury Park, London.

I really like the way the edges curve in and out. But even though I'd done loads of cowls, I had to adapt the pattern for a scarf: I tried the pattern without any purl stitches between each motif and then with two purl stitches.  I ended up using one, that worked best.

Because the scarf stubbornly rolled in from the long edges while I was knitting (I ended up with something resembling a sausage more than an accessory to be worn round the neck!) I was prepared to block the scarf aggressively (as the phrase goes) but all I did was to wet it down - and, hrrch!, it went flat as a pancake.  Oh dearie me, that rather scared me.  I found that I didn't have to stick any pins into this whatsoever, it stayed quite nicely in shape as soon as I draped it.  Once it was dry it lost the 'pancake' flatness and took on a resemblance of life.  So that was good.

I am pleased with the result.  I hope the recipient likes it too and that I picked a good colour.

Garter stitch in the round without purling - a link

I have just found a blog post about the most genius way of knitting garter stitch in the round without purling or wrapping a stitch when turning the work for another knit row when going the other way.

Here is the link:

http://fleeglesblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/modestly-named-fleegle-corner-trick.html

This is utterly brilliant and Fleegle is an out and out genius for coming up with this! Like someone said in the comments: I would have never thought of this. Not in a million years.

I just had to share this. This is something I will definitely try very soon!

Brilliant.

Notizen - quilted notebook cover

That's 'notebook' as in the one with the white pages, to write on, with a real pen!

I really enjoyed quilting the letters to spell out what it's for. The 'i' in the centre middle is not very clear, I should have given it its own background fabric but couldn't fit that in widthwise.

The photo is not brilliant, but better than nothing. This is also the item of the title graphic. I ought to have used a photo of something else but I like these colours a lot.

Unfortunately I did not check the cover against the size of the notebook often enough, the cover came out a little on the swamping side, but better a little too big than not big enough and therefore rubbish for the purpose. I had to insert a bit of a cardboard because this slightly too big cover flopped all over the place.

But it is quite pretty. I just hope the recipient finds it as useful as I'd hoped he would.