New Scarves

My mom had surgery on Thursday which meant 10 hours of knitting in the waiting room at the hospital. (She came through the surgery fine and is recovering nicely at home). I got a lot of knitting done on the felted bag I am working on for the shop (sample for upcoming class) but needed something to alternate with all that boring "round and round" knitting on the bag.

Here is the Alternating Elegance Scarf from The Little Box Of Scarves. I am using Fiesta Yarns Rayon Boucle and Gelato Ribbon in the Vanilla colorway. It's turning out so nice. I cut the pattern down by one repeat in the hopes of being able to squeak out 2 scarves from the yarn. I will put the second one on consignment in the shop and if I sell it, it will pay for mine. It was a splurge that I really didn't need to make the week after Christmas, but it was the last skein of boucle in that colorway and I couldn't take a chance of not getting it. Right?



I accidentally left the Alternating Elegance scarf at the shop when I stopped in to show it off on Friday and everyone who saw it fell in love. The pattern is so cool, the yarns are to die for. Such great colors (some of the other colorways are really awesome, but I liked this one because it reminded me of the beach) The Gelato is especially yummy. It's like butter through your fingers. SOOOO soft. The scarf is going to have a lovely drape, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to dive into my bead stash and figure out a cool beaded fringe for it.

The other thing I brought along to work on (each project went through the rotation twice at the hospital) was my version of the Stained Glass Scarf (also from Little Box of Scarves). The pattern calls for Noro Silk Garden and another worsted weight black, and larger needles. However, I have been wanting to do a scarf with the same Trekking yarn as the socks I have in the works, mixed with black, and this pattern seemed to be just right. I increased the stitches to 32, and am using size 6 needles, and the black I am using is Nature Spun sport weight. This picture shows the front and also the very cool pattern emerging on the back side.



Once finished, I will add some black to the outer edges to hide the fact that one side has just the Trekking yarn on the edge and the other side is the black and colors being carried up the side of each other. Somehow I think this pattern could have been written so that the black carried itself up the sides. If I ever do another one of these scarves, I will figure out how to do that. And I will use a worsted weight yarn. And bigger needles. This scarf is taking forEVER! However, the Alternating Elegance is going pretty quickly. The 2 rows that make up the fancy stitch go quickly and POOF you've knit an inch.


I ordered and received the book Crazy Heels and Toes recently and am anxious to start trying "Queen Kahuna"'s methods. I really think I'm going to get a lot of use out of this book, and highly recommend it. Her ideas break out of the box when it comes to sock knitting. Not that I have that much experience with socks, but I love her ideas that are different than any sock patterns I've come across so far. The fact that you can knit a gusset without picking up the edges of a heel flap sold me right off. The book is chock full of pictures for the visual learners out there. Very nice self-published book.