For the most part, up until recently I was a one-project knitter. But this:
Drove me to distraction.
I love hand-knitted scarves, I do. They’re warm and cuddly and made with love. But I hate hate knitting scarves. They are generally mind-numbingly boring and so long, but never as long as you think, so they take forever to knit. Now I’ve never done one of those lovely lacey numbers, and maybe several months from now, when I’ve forgotten knitting this scarf, I’ll give it a go.
So why did I knit this scarf? The yarn. The lovely lovely yarn that is named after my old neighborhood in Chicago – Edgewater. As you may or may not know, Lorna’s Lace is based in Chicago and many of her colorways are named after and inspired by Chicago neighborhoods: Argyle, Ravenswood, Devon, Lakewood, etc. When I found out she added a Edgewater colorway I leaped with joy and began haunting my LYS on a weekly basis until they got it in stock.
I normally only pick up Lorna’s in sock weight because I can never figure out what to do with multi-colored yarn on a large scale that doesn’t seem too busy, but this time I went with the worsted weight. I decided I wanted to make Mr. Cleaver a scarf (knowing that he doesn’t really wear them) to remember our two years in the Windy City. I picked up the yarn in early August and hoped to finish it before we moved – hah!
I tried, I really did, but even knitting this thing while watching TV was boring. And I decided to do the whole thing in seed stitch, which gave it a great texture and made me a great big fool. And if you can’t tell, it’s actually two yarns- Edgewater & Black Purl, alternated every 16 rows: which is my I call this my Sextuple S Scarf: Seed-Stitch Self-Striping Striped Scarf.
So while I was trying to finish this scarf I started and finished a cardigan, a hat to match the unfinished scarf, an identical hat for a friend who liked the hat that matched the unfinished scarf, and a beret I designed. I’ll post about the other projects after I get a chance to photograph them, but Mr. Cleaver was gracious enough to model his new gear for me.
The hat is Brooklyn Tweed’s Turn a Square. It’s super simple and a quick knit. A great beginning hat pattern for those wanting to try knitting in the round. I really liked the way the multi-colored yarn worked with the grey and since I have a good chunk of the Black Purl yarn left, I think I’d like to do a similarly toned vest and give steeking a try.
Oh, and for a guy who doesn’t really like hats or scarves, Mr. Cleaver gave both of these his stamp of approval.
Whew!
November 6, 2008 at 11:47 AM
Very nice! Kudos to Mr. Cleaver for being a willing model.
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November 6, 2008 at 5:21 PM
Hey hey hey! I didn’t understand most of this post, it being in knitspeak, but I liked looking at the pictures (guess how much of the weekend papers I read?). I did agree with the primary statement about scarves being boring… probably why I am not a knitter (yet). My first and only knitting project was a scarf and I honestly nearly died with the boredom.
Love the hat and scarf, and fabulously modelled by your other half.
I have also noticed that you kindly tagged me a while back… I have just done this tag and am thinking about a way to do it again without doing it again (if you know what I mean)… leave it with me.
Sorry about the essay… rather frantic today.
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November 14, 2008 at 3:34 PM
So beautiful! I made a sport weight seed stitch scarf for the bf last year – worst idea ever, even though it turned out lovely. Couldn’t pick up a project for two months afterwards.
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June 3, 2009 at 6:20 AM
[…] out places to put them all. As regular readers and members of my knitting circle know, I am not a usually a multi-project knitter, although I think I am starting to turning into one. The case these days is that I’m […]
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