A scarf and a shawl (or a sharf gone wrong)

When my mom came for a visit in October, she brought yarn and knitting needles for me to teach her how to knit. She'd learned to crochet somewhere along the way but never to knit.

Two slight problems with this plan: 1) She got sick. :-( She was able to hang with the kids and do a few fun things with us, but we didn't have nearly as much down time/visiting time as we normally do. And knitting was the least part of that that we missed. 2) She brought this really fun fuzzy yarn in two different colors. Those who know fun fuzzy yarn and have ever learned to knit know that it's not at all good for learning on. No big deal, because I had plenty of other yarn for her to learn with, but there was no way she was starting, much less completing, those projects (she wanted scarfs) while she was here.

So, I took up the projects for her.

I worked the blue yarn first (I'd link you to the type, but I kind of didn't pay attention to that, so I don't remember), intending to make her a sharf. This is a concept I'd stumbled on accidentally when I was first knitting what was supposed to be a scarf for a friend. It ended up too wide, but made the perfect convertible scarf/shawl. So I repeated that concept several times, including one which I gave my mom while she was here. And I thought I'd repeat it again with this yarn.

I still have a bit of a problem gauging how wide something's going to be, though, by my row of casting on, so it, too, ended up too wide. So I made a shawl. But I ran out of yarn, so I used some leftover from my nephew's blanket to finish out the ends.


I can't decide whether it's stylish-funky or just funky.

I was able to send packages back with a friend's parents to be mailed, and my mom got these yesterday (this was the last of the projects I'd been waiting to post until the items had been received). I assured her that, if she wants, we can buy more of the original yarn and I'll remove the ends and just knit more of the fun, fuzzy yarn. I haven't heard back yet as to her response to my offer. :-P

So, with the brown yarn she bought, I decided to play it safer. Just a scarf, thank you.

Well, I did play with some patterns, but once I discovered that the yarn was too fuzzy for the patterns to show up, I took that part out and just knit. And it still turned out fun and fuzzy. With fringe, too!

NY's baby blanket

Just finished and sent off to the States to be mailed: a baby blanket for our soon-coming new nephew, ML's youngest sister's third child.


What you can't see in this picture...(sorry, old family joke) is that there is a star in the middle of each square. It's much more obvious in real life.

It is based on the same pattern that I knit from for ML's middle sister's youngest daughter's blanket. I "just" worked out the star pattern to replace the heart one ([u]not[/u] an easy feat, although it sounded simple enough to begin with).

Again, I used Caron Simply Soft yarn. This time, though, I chose 1) Light Country Blue, 2) Country Blue, and 3) Dark Country Blue with the first section being knit with 1 & 2 together, the second 1 & 3, and the third 2 & 3. I was worried that this was going to make the blanket too dark (there was a Soft Blue I could have made the lightest color and dropped the Dark Country Blue), but ML's sister was able to look at the yarns before they were brought to me (when ML's parents visited), and she loved them (I also knew that a darker blanket would look dirty less easily). She even used those colors as a basis for the quilt ML's mom will make, as she does for each grandchild.

The other main difference is that I alternated the knit and the purl each time the pattern repeated across, thus making it squares, not just strips. I wanted it to have a bit of a quilt-block look, and I really like the way it turned out. I will definitely keep this as part of the pattern for future renditions.

LEH's blanket

At some point during ML's middle sister's fourth pregnancy, I decided to knit her a baby blanket. I don't remember any particular fanfare as to why, just that it seemed like a good idea. And as with all good ideas I have, I went to Sonlight to ask for help in the execution. I got yarn and pattern recommendations and went to town.

Unfortunately, there were a few false starts on the way to town. I didn't know much about yarn weight, and what I ordered (brought from the States) was too thin, not substantial enough to be knit into a blanket. I also did not like the way the lightest of the three colors I had chosen looked when knit. I know the original pattern called for "Barbie Pink," but there is a reason I didn't buy the yarn the pattern recommended. (I still have the bright pink blanket I ended up completing waiting to be given to a local friend, who will dearly love it.)

So, in a moment of brilliance (or, more likely, desperation), I came up with an idea that solved both of my problems: knit with two strands of different colors. It dulled the brightness of the pink and provided the bulk I needed. And the end result is pictured above.

One of the Sonlight ladies said she often knit a baby blanket with a heart in reverse stitch. The closest she could find on the internet was this pattern. I liked the smaller hearts even better than one big one, so that is what I did. And I knit it in Caron Simply Soft: 1) Soft Pink, 2) Victorian Rose and 3) Plum Wine. The first section is 1 & 2, the second 1 & 3, and the third 2 & 3.

I am knitting essentially the same blanket in blues with stars for ML's youngest sister's son due in January. Pictures forthcoming.