Pictures of Success . . . and the Road . . .

As promised, here are the photos of the completed Dragon Scales Scarf and I finally blocked and finished up that one I made with the hand-painted alpaca (the softest yarn ever!).

First, my blocking experience . . . because my mom is here, I made use of her crafting experience and she showed me yet another way to block things that I think works especially well for scarves, so give it a whirl. First, make sure you have the pins you'll need and a measuring tape, iron, and ironing board. Just start pinning away and use the measuring tape to ensure that the scarf or whatever you are blocking is the measurement you want. Take a damp cotton cloth (one of those sack-clothe dish towels works well) and place it over the scarf. Finally, with the iron on the correct setting to steam for your fabric (wool setting for wool yarn, etc) - press the iron to the damp cloth (you don't need to press down hard) and let the steam from the iron and damp towel do the work. Easy as pie and I think you may like this method for smaller pieces. Here's what we've got . . .

This is the Alpaca scarf finished. It's super warm, so if you ever decide to whip one of these out (it took about an hour to make), but don't make it too wide or you'll never wear it.







This is the Dragon Scales pattern scarf made from the terra yarn. It is also super soft and the blocking really helped flatten out the finall project and make the pattern more visible.







Here is a detail of the Dragon Scales pattern.









Finally, my progress on the Alligator Wrap. I'm moving very slow on this one and I have to say the the pattern is pretty boring. However, getting to the different points where you switch out the colors is keeping it moving. I love the way it looks and I think I'll really enjoy it once it's done. For now though, thank goodness there's four inches of snow on the road and not much else to do!

The Beginning and the Ends

I've cast off another project and begun the next...

Cast off . . .

Recently finished is a scarf made from a very cool yarn by Terra in Black Walnut (will post the photo once it's blocked). The yarn is intentionally irregular, but made from merino, baby alpaca and silk so it feels wonderful to work with. Typical of me, I had no project in mind when I bought it and then was limited to the size of work because I'd only bought three skeins. I ended up making a scarf in a pattern called Dragon Scales and it turned out lovely. The pattern doesn't show up as much because it's a darker yarn, but it's very subtle and the scarf just feels great. Another scarf for my growing collection.

Cast on . . .

I've started the Koigu Alligator Wrap with the colors to the right - starting with the dar greens. So far, the pattern is going well. Since I didn't want the 100 inch lenght to the wrap the pattern calls for, I shortened the number I cast on from the 400 to just 300 stiches on the size 3 US needles. That's still alot of stiches! I fiddled around with both a single yarn over (per your experience) and a double. For this one (and since I decided on a wrap instead of a scarf) I'm going with the double yarn over to achieve the width. I have to say I'm loving working with the Koigu.

New Projects - Isn't it fun when things get done

So I have been busy. Actually a few things finished around the same time. I felted the stacking boxes out of Mason-Dixon Knitting. I really like this book and if I really wanted to spend months - OK years - I would make the robe out of it. Unfortunately the boxes didn't come out as well as I wanted. I will have to continue to experiment with felting.


I finished my project from the weaving class I took. It started off as a table runner but when I took it off the loom I realized that it was actually a scarf. Ironically another woman in the class was planning on making a scarf and when she took it off the loom it was a table runner! My advice is if you ever do anything on a loom choose stiff fibers if you want a table runner or you will end up with a scarf.


A close up of the design.