dadscarf

mad scarf rush 2006 entry the third: dadscarf.



i know, i know. i can hear your bleating. "you made this one already!" "the ninja is going senile!" "he thinks he can just go posting the same thing again and noone will notice!" this, my semi-loyal readers, is not the case. i did, in fact, make basically the same irish hiking scarf, in basically the same yarn, but it is different. as i have given both incarnations away i will find this rather difficult to prove, and therefore can't take a photo of both together, so you're going to have to trust me.



the first irish hiking scarf was knit on size 10 1/2 needles in a grey and white yarn. this, the second, was knit on size 10 needles in a brown and white yarn. see all the difference?

and now, the one for which you've all been waiting: the action shot.

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sisterscarf

mad scarf rush 2006 entry the second: sisterscarf.



this is basically the horizontal texture stripe scarf, but when i switched sides for the stockinette sections, i also switched colors. this maintains the bouncy nature of the piece, while giving it proper stripes. all in all, the ninja is quite pleased.



this was knit with ye olde last-minute-gift-friendly bear creek yarn on size 15 needles. each stockinette strip is 4 rows, so that i could carry the contrasting color up the side.

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two things

thing the first
i actually had a fight with a man at a bar last night regarding whether or not i had made a scarf that my friend was wearing. he was convinced that it was too nice to have been handmade. psh.


thing the second:
a friend sent me the following:

do you know what y is in the following equation?
y = {log [(KN) * (JD)] x (v *(NS))} / t

Where KN is Knitten Ninja
JD is Jack Daniels
V is speed
NS is the Needle Size
and t, obviously, is time?

It's the rate at which all the yarn in the world decreases.
You're not lazy. You're just multi-tasking too hard.

triangulation

so mad scarf rush 2006 continues apace. mom's scarf is done.



for this i used the same brand of yarn as the texture striped scarf. the pattern is for the multidirectional scarf that everyone seems to like to make using noro yarn. it has beautiful colorways or something. personally, i just wanted to make a nice solid scarf with just a tinge of flair. something appropriate for a woman of a certain age, you know? basically, it is a series of triangles knit from one point (1 st) out to the long side (here 25 st) in short rows. when you finish the long side, turn it to the shorter edge, and start from 1st, picking up the other side as you go along. it's a lot of fun and confuses bystanders greatly.

i think it turned out rather well. and, of course, i had to try it on.



details: bear creek yarn in cherry on size 15 bamboo needles. (it's marked 17, but i am extremely anti-plastic needle knitting for no apparent reason and 15 were the largest bamboos i could find.) To finish, i used the second bind off method in the pattern, and i think it worked out rather nicely.

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who's got big balls?

i think i have a problem. i really really love this bear creek yarn. not only does it knit up super fast, but it's so pretty. here are the balls i'll be using for a scarf to match my sister's hat. i'm planning on doing a texture stripe scarf that's properly striped as well.



i'm rather upper class high society
god's gift to ballroom notoriety
i always fill my ballroom
the event is never small
the social pages say i've got
the biggest balls of all

i've got big balls
i've got big balls
and they're such big balls
dirty big balls
and he's got big balls
and she's got big balls
but we've got the biggest balls of them all

nice sweater

so a friend of mine made an interesting request for knitwear. she wanted wristwarmers (*yawn*) that were the length of opera gloves (*!*). that sounded like great fun. i figured something of this size would need to be somewhat fitted to the recipient. and as the recipient was of pixie height, measurements would be in order. so she flitted about her office looking for a tape measure or string. unfortunately i can only imaging this event, as i was not there. but i am fairly certain it would have been hysterical.

so measurements were taken and recorded. i used worsted weight wool on size 7 needles and knit from the fingers up. for the thumbs i cast on an additional 6 st, which made them a bit wider. this was then tapered back in towards the wrist, and slowly widened up the arm. increases were all made along the thumbline, and there was a simple cable every 8 rows to try to hide them. I wanted to make the part that would show from under a coat all black, so that the stripey excitement was only apparently when the coat was removed. at the very top of the gloves, the last 8 rows were knit back and forth in seed stitch, to make a non-ribbed top and a "v" on the side to make them a bit easier to put on. and here, the results!

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what about the title, you ask? well, the lovely lady sporting the warmers was wearing them to get her hair did one day. the gentleman doing so complimented her sweater. "oh, it's not a sweater. they're wristwarmers." she replied. and then removed her jacket. to the apparent awe of the gentleman cutter. excellent.

that's haute

so yesterday i was wearing the textured stripe scarf on the subway. it has always puzzled me how in winter inside areas are overheated. i mean, if it's very cold out, you'll most likely have a heavy coat, scarf, gloves, hat, etc. why on earth would you want to enter public transit where it was hotter than in summer? are you meant to take off all your layers? where will you put them? and aside from the heat and cumbersome apparel there is the oppressive artificial dryness. argh.
but this is neither here nor there.
so yesterday i was wearing the textured stripe scarf on the subway. i was also working on another scarf for my mother for christmas. after knitting for a good 20 minutes i got up and walked towards the door. a woman who had been staring at me in a manner i had previously deemed hostile turned to me and spoke. i removed the acid house kings' dulcet tones from my ear and asked her to repeat herself. "did you knit that one too?" "why yes, i did." "it's lovely."

it's been a while since someone talked to me randomly on the subway. it's something new yorkers don't do. you don't make eye contact on the street. you don't give money to the homeless if they're begging in a bar. you don't walk on the left. and you certainly don't talk to strangers on the subway.

unless, apparently, they're knitting.

textured stripe scarf

so in one expedition to my local yarn store, i came across this beautiful yarn. it's called bear creek, and is 99% wool (the rest is apparently the thin wirelike thread keeping the yarn together). it's meant to be knit on size 17 needles. and as that is absurdly huge, i've been knitting it on 15s. and here are the results.



i worked on this in the car on a road trip to westchester for a wedding. i made it through an entire skein and about 4' of scarf on the way there. now, i am a fairly fast knitter, but still. hooray for chunky yarn!



the pattern was as follows:

1. k
2. p
3. k
4. p
5. k
6. p
7. k
8. k
9. p
10. k
11. p
12. k
13. p
14. k

and repeat. so it's 7 rows of stockinette in one direction, then 7 rows of stockinette in the other. i have some innate dislike for things that aren't symmetric and reversible, so this keeps the crazy in me happy. also, it bounces a bit when you walk. so that's pretty sweet.



the color i used is almond torte, and it was about 12 stitches wide. in future 2 skeins would happily make a 6' scarf that is about 20 stitches wide. so if you're going to give it a shot, that's what i'd recommend.

also, i just started a multidirectional scarf in the same yarn (different color) that is going crazy fast. i should have new pics for you kids soon. until then, we rate the torte.

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more headgear

after making the black and violet hat, i realized how quickly one could knit up such a thing. as per usual, i decided to mass produce. the next entry was a green hat.



this one i made with 10 rows ribbing, 25 rows stockinette, and then the 18 rows decreasing. i should have done 30 rows, it's a tad short. i'll have to give it to a small headed person. which is actually rather convenient, as the person i made it for fits that description.

and here's me in the hat. a leetle on the tight side, no?

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