Giotto Curly Whirlie

After a marathon finishing session last night, here is the completed curly whirlie scarf:



Apologies for the camera flash effect, the quality of daylight is quite poor at the moment.

Yarn: Colinette Giotto cotton/rayon tape, shade Raphael
Pattern: based on UKnitty's pattern, with changes as noted below
Needles: 8mm, 80cm Addi Turbo circular needle
Yardage: around 180g / 260 yards (2 skeins required)

I think this came out quite well, and is certainly a better use for this yarn, which tends to sag in a flat knitted piece!

I cast on 150 stitches and followed the pattern as written until the 6th row after the second increase (600 stitches). At this point I knit two more rows, then cast off without doing the final increase.

There is another 120g-ish of this yarn left, and I may well make another scarf using this and some plain black Patons Whisper. That's me off to join the Curly Whirlie blog then!

Happy New Year!

A safe and happy 2006 to everyone :-)

Almost finished with the Dulaan scarf, and I frogged the aforementioned camisole back while watching "Under The Greenwood Tree" on Boxing Day. It has already been re-used (and a second skein balled and half-used) for a curlie-whirlie scarf.

I previously mentioned that my mother liked my aunt's scarf in the Patons eyelash yarn. She wanted one to match her winter coat, however when we saw the coat it was a deep mulberry colour. I don't have any eyelash in the stash that would match, however I picked up the then-unfrogged cami back and held it up against the coat. A perfect match. The yarn is Colinette Giotto (cotton/rayon tape) in shade Raphael. You really couldn't ask for a better match.

Sooo having said I'd do a scarf then finding the perfect yarn already in my possession, I had to start it! I'm using UKnitty's pattern, and have just got to six rows after the second increase. That's 600 stitches on an 80cm/8mm circular needle. Amazingly they are still easy to handle. I'm going to carry on knitting at 600 stitches per row until the scarf is a little wider, then do the final increase and cast-off. I have no idea how long the actual scarf will be, it looks like a huge hair scrunchie at the moment! Not sure when I'll finish as it's taking me an hour to do a row :-D

Now things have calmed down after the Christmas rushing-around, I've remembered to blog the knitterly things I got for Christmas. First off was a set of Denise interchangeable needles. Nicely packaged in their own case, I've tried fixing some to a cord and managed one side but not the other. A little more practice required! I like the cord extenders included so you can get a VERY long cord.

Second was Ann Budd's book of basic patterns for the likes of socks, gloves, scarves, hats, sweater etc. Very well laid out and I think it will be most useful.

We braved the weather today (it snowed last night and all looked very pretty at midnight - all gone this morning though!) and I bought some cable needles. I'm quite keen to try the Lupin scarf prototype one of the contributors to HP Knitting has devised. Not sure how many cable needles I need at any one time though!

Finally I'd like to say a huge congrats and Happy New House to Lynne at Yarnivorous, who has had the unenviable task of moving house over Christmas!

Hurrah!

A quick Boxing Day post to report that all of the knitted presents went down well. So well in fact that my aunt was convinced we'd bought the scarf, and was rendered semi-speechless (no mean feat) when I told her I'd made it :-) Now my mother wants a fluffy scarf after seeing this one!

I'm making good progress with the Dulaan scarf now, it should be finished fairly soon. My plan is to have no projects from 2005 carrying over into 2006 (sounds like a New Year's resolution there).

This does mean I have to frog the Giotto camisole back section, my first ever real frogging (ripping a hat back after 2 whole rows doesn't count!). The yarn will be put to better use elsewhere.

Off to sort out the rest of Boxing Day lunch now!

All knitted out ...

... at least where Christmas gifts are concerned, I finished the last one today. No pictures due to me wrapping them up as soon as finished. I made a scarf and bag in Patons Whisper Lurex (black), this knits up as a very soft, almost bulky fabric. The bag is quite simple, a rectangle with 2 i-cord short handles, and a closure using a sparkly translucent flower-shaped button.

I'm very glad to have finished my knitted gifts in time. Next year I doubt I'll be quite as ambitious! I see my knitting as a relaxing creative pastime, and having looming deadlines made worse by unexpected illness, takes all the fun out of it. I'm very pleased with how the gifts turned out though.

Tonight I did another chunk on the Dulaan scarf, while watching "Most Haunted". I've only really "discovered" this programme recently, and am rather addicted.

The scarf and bag project will be finished before I start any more projects, I don't want to head into the new year with half-done items languishing in my "in-progress" bag! The poor UFO, the Colinette Giotto camisole, will probably be frogged and turned into more useful objects, as I can't see me wearing it. I reckon it would make good curlie wurlie scarves :-)

Next posting some time next week - season's greetings all, have a great holiday!

Who scarf

Rather later than promised, due to the Ironing Mountain, finished Dr Who scarf photos. You can see that the mustard/yellow yarn is thinner than the other shades. I have no idea why, it's all Sirdar Country Style DK!






Yarn: Sirdar Country Style DK
Width: 7 inches
Length: about 10 feet
Pattern: this one (first on page) but stopped at 10 feet rather than around 15 feet that the pattern covers

Cast off at last!

I've just cast off on the Doctor Who scarf, at last! I'll be weaving in ends tonight, and fringing and pressing it tomorrow so it can be posted off on Monday.

This only leaves me a small hat and scarf in Patons Whisper to make, which is unlikely to take me two weeks :-) As my sister's birthday is in January, I'm making her a scarf for that rather than try to rush one before Christmas Day.

Pictures tomorrow or Monday of the finished Who scarf, which has turned out at about nine and a half feet long unfringed.

The long and winding scarf

I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth - I have been busily knitting away at the Doctor Who scarf! The beastie is now around 7 feet long, not too far to go now as I'm stopping at around 10 feet - which with fringe will be almost 11 feet. More than long enough for the recipient!



I've almost seen the back of the evil virus, it is hanging on for grim death in my sinuses now. For some reason it mostly affects just the left hand side of my head!

Here's a quick roundup of the various knitterly items I've acquired recently:

- Knitting Over The Edge by Nicky Epstein. The followup to Knitting On The Edge and full of lovely borders and embellishments. I am very taken with the cabbage rose-edged capelet and am considering making it in black :-)

- two pairs of 80cm Addi Turbos, one 8mm, one 4.5mm. I'm planning on a quick curlywurly scarf for my sister instead of the lace-effect one which I now don't have time to do, which is why I got the 8mm pair. I do love Addi Turbos!

- a Clover "kacha kacha" row counter which is great as you can click it one-handed, and it stays put unlike my older wheel counter which has a mind of its own.

- a set of 2.5mm bamboo DPNs which I got in case I got the urge to make some socks. Having used the 12" Addis to make the beanie I reckon they would work well with socks too.

We've been terribly organised and sorted out all of the Christmas shopping, wrapped it all up, and my DH took the presents over to his family in Sheffield last Friday! Just Christmas cards to write which I tend to find a bit tedious, I much prefer wrapping presents!