Make Your Own Scarf

One thing I find difficult is finding clothing in my colors. I am an autumn, so I don't wear black very well at all. Brown is my black. I also don't wear the colors that I would normally find in every store in Christchurch at the moment: white, purple, red and black (bleck!). My colors are bright greens, rust, oranges and peacock blue among other colors. It's is surprisingly difficult to find clothes in these colors, especially in winter.

One of the things I've been on the lookout for is a scarf with some of those vivid colors in it, that I can use with some of my neutral pieces; to add color and tie everything together. Again, really hard finding anything in my palette. I keep looking and find nothing I like.

I was at the fabric store the other day and found this lovely, silky fabric in orange, dark brown, cream, green and dashes of other colors I love. I bought a 1/2 meter for $20, trimmed it down to a scarf-sized rectangle and spent the evening doing a hand-sewn rolled hem on it.

Today, I have a beautiful scarf that cost me $20 and took one evening to make. It looks incredible against my skin and with most things in my wardrobe.

Tip on getting the scarf perfectly square and on the grain:
Cut a notch in the edge and rip the fabric...it will rip right on the grain. The raw edges will be sewn under with the rolled hem.

I used this tutorial on YouTube to learn the rolled hem. I didn't have to use starch...I just folded the edge down as I went, no problem.

Hand-sewn rolled hem. Probably needs a quick hit with an iron

Show Me Your Bootie

Been shakin' booties for the last few days, so to speak. They are great fun and fast to knit. I'm playing catch-up with a friend who's had her new boy for a couple months now and there's another friend with a girl due any day. I found this pattern for Gansey booties free from Knitting Pattern Central on the web. But of course I had to change a couple of things...

On the purple booties, which are for the little girl, I added a girlie finish to the cuff. You can do this stitch as a cast-off for any number of even stitches. I adapted it from a book of knitted edgings that I had, but modified it slightly.

On the teal bootie, I changed the pattern on the top slightly. For both booties, I used KnitPicks Swish worsted in Indigo Heather and (I think) Marine Heather. Great colors and very soft. It's much softer than Lamb's Pride Superwash Worsted. And the other good thing about Swish, is it is essentially the same yarn as the KnitPicks 'Bare' Superwash Merino yarn that you can use to dye your own. Last winter, I dyed up a bunch of the Bare yarn, then ordered the Swish to use with it. Looks great together. And machine washable.

Instructions for dainty bobbled edge:

At start of cast off row:
*k1, but don't slip stitch off the L needle. Instead, place loop back on to L needle. One new stitch created.
Put your R needle in between the two stitches on L needle. Draw loop through as if you are knitting and place this loop also on the L needle. Now you have created 2 new stitches next to the first stitch (group of 3 stitches).*

k2 and pass the first st over the second st on the R needle (you have cast off one st).
k1 and pass the first st over the second st on the R needle (you have now cast off two). You will have one st remaining on the R needle.
k the next st and pass the first st over the second st on the R needle. One st remains on R needle.

Repeat from * to *.
k1, cast off 1 on R needle as before. Repeat 3 more times.
Repeat the last two lines above until all stitches have been cast off. Cut yarn and weave in.

Now I'm on to knitting a couple of coordinating hats to match the booties.

I also finished the scarf I was working on. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, some projects just don't go as well as you'd like. I love the cabled pattern I chose for the scarf, but I ended up running out of one of the yarns a little early, so the scarf ended up a little shorter than I would have liked. It is still really pretty and will look awesome wrapped around and tucked into a jacket or coat. The colors are lovely.

Frustration

So I decided on a new pattern for my scarf, one that would show off the yarn and I came up with this cable pattern that's pretty simple, or so I thought. I got this far as of last night, only to discover with some horror that I've made an error way far back in the knitting, where I crissed when I should have crossed.
You can see that this elongated section of the pattern does not match the ones below it. My first thought was to continue thinking 'no one will notice but you,' but I will always know it's there and it will bother me, so I must rip it back and correct it.

I like the pattern. It's a bit bulkier, but I think with a nice fringe on it, it will look great when it's done.

This IS quite frustrating for me as it's tough to rip out when you are using three yarns. They twist and tangle and generally try one's patience. So I might have to do this in stages. But I am determined to get this right.

@Stacie: thanks for your suggestion! I had thought of that, but decided to do something really different instead. Perhaps I should have stuck with your simpler idea!

Ain't it True?

Thank you to my friend Shandra for sending me this cartoon...

...and this GORGEOUS SCARF. This photo does not do it justice. It looks like sparkling gems in the colors of peacock feathers. I am so lucky.