Spontaneous scarf
24 May 2012 1 Comment
in knitting Tags: knitting, oddments, scarf
This is hardly the weather to be thinking about scarves (hurrah!), but as I’ve suddenly acquired a large stash of odd balls of wool from a friend, I thought it was worth trying out this pattern for a spontaneous scarf by Charlene Anderson.
The scarf is knitted lengthwise, changing the yarn every row and leaving a length of 7-8 inches of wool at each end that later forms the fringe. By using moss stitch (that’s British moss stitch, not American moss stitch*), you achieve an almost woven effect.
It’s so effective but so simple – certainly simple enough for me to be able to watch Scandinavian thrillers with subtitles without any problem while knitting! And because you change yarn every row, it’s great for using up leftover balls.
*Another example of two nations divided by a single language. In British moss stitch you knit one, purl one across the row, and then on the second row you purl the knit stitches and knit the purl stitches. Americans call this seed stitch. American moss stitch is alternating knit and purl across two rows, followed by two rows of alternating purl and knit.
Manly scarves
17 Nov 2011 4 Comments
in felt Tags: muslin, nuno felt, scarf
My best customer (thank you Magdalen!) suggested the other day that I make some scarves suitable for men. What – you mean men don’t like wearing delicate nuno-felted net scarves? ;-)
So yesterday I made a sample scarf of nuno felt on muslin. It’s based on the idea inspired by Audley Harrison’s shirt – and you can’t get more manly than that!
Nearly network
23 Sep 2011 6 Comments
in felt Tags: beads, felt, network, scarf
Is there a seasonality about textiles? I just ask because over the summer I’ve done absolutely no felting – just shibori, shibori, shibori. But now that the chills of autumn are in the air I’ve suddenly had a desire to go back to felt.
This may also have had something to do with the arrival of my copy of From Felt to Friendship by Chrissie Day and Nicola Brown. I know Nicola because she writes the excellent Clasheen blog and is kind enough to give me advice through her comments here. One day I will have enough time/money to go to Ireland for one of her workshops, but in the meantime I have the book to inspire me.
So, still thinking about Claudia Phipps’ glass wings, I wanted to make a scarf with holes in it (aka network felt). I’ve made these before, by laying out adjoining circles of wool and felting them together (left).
I’d read what seemed like an easier method, of laying the roving out in a grid, in both Lizzie Houghton’s Creative Felting and in Fabulous Felted Scarves by Chad Alice Hagan and Jorie Johnson. But the holes produced in this way were too regular and, well, grid like!
Then in From Felt to Friendship I came across one of Nicola’s scarves where she cuts slits in the felt to form holes after felting. She also included a method of incorporating beads by threading them onto roving and felting them in. Never known for my lack of ambition(!), I thought I’d give both techniques a go – and include some fringes for good measure.
This is the result. The holes in Nicola’s scarf were much smaller, but I wanted them quite large, and next time I think I will make them even larger and more of them. The scarf is made with only one layer of wool, and I actually made some of the holes by just pulling the wool apart in some of the thin areas, rather than cutting.
The beads along the fringes worked quite well, but you do have to rub well between the beads to get the roving to felt in properly.
All in all, a happy, productive afternoon. It was good to get back to felting after the break!
Nuno shibori scarf
10 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
in felt Tags: felt, nuno, nylon net, scarf, shibori
A few weeks ago I tried nuno felting on nylon net. Last night in class I used a shibori technique to add texture.
Nuno net scarf before shibori
We rolled the scarf around a piece of sawn-off drainpipe, about 18 inches high. This was fine, because I wanted the ridges to run vertically along the length of the scarf. If I had wanted horizontal ridges across the width, the scarf would have to be rolled vertically, which would have needed a much longer drainpipe!
After rolling, we secured one edge of the scarf with an elastic band, then tied some string to this and rolled it in a spiral down the rest of the scarf, leaving gaps of about half an inch between each round. About halfway, we squashed the part of the scarf that had been tied down to the bottom so that the ridges became more pronounced, then finished tying the other half. Finally, we put another elastic band on the top edge of the scarf, tied off the string, and pushed the whole scarf down as far as it would go. (Sorry I don’t have any pictures of this – would be much easier to show!)
We heated some water in a tea urn and placed the drainpipe inside with the scarf at the top, so that no water was touching it. (The idea is to use the steam to set the pleats, not to wet the fabric.) We put a towel on top to seal in the steam, and then the lid. I guess you could do this at home in a tall stockpot or similar, but obviously this limits the width of fabric you can use, which is why a tea urn is ideal.
After steaming for about an hour, we removed the drainpipe and scarf, cut off the elastic bands and string, and admired the end result.
Nuno net scarf after shibori
The tying/steaming process didn’t just produce the pleasing pleats – it also softened the cheap scratchy nylon net into something much more pleasant to handle.
My tutor says that the scarf can be dry cleaned or washed without damaging the pleats, though obviously in cool rather than boiling water.
Circles scarf
24 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
in crochet Tags: crochet, Noro, Ravelry, scarf
What I like about this scarf is that it looks as if it’s made from hundreds of circles sewed together. In fact, it’s made in long strips of circles, which are connected with slip stitch as you go along. So there’s no sewing – only a few ends to tidy up at the end. Which is a relief – I hate having to sew in lots of ends.
And it’s worked in a multicoloured yarn, so you don’t have to keep changing colours all the time.
I found the pattern, by Linda Permann, in an old copy of Inside Crochet magazine, which I picked up at a market stall, but it’s also on Ravelry. I used Silk Garden Sock Yarn by Noro in blue, black, lime, and grey.
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