Bauhin - a new summer scarf

When I was im my Caribbean holiday in February I made a start on my first lace scarf. I rise early if at home or in holiday and this precious hour or hours in case of a holiday before anybody else gets up are the best of the day for me.

So I found myself kitting the "Bauhin" pattern by Veronika Avery for Brookly Tweed every morning on the terrace of the little wooden house I had rented for two weeks and although I only finished the scarf recently, it will forever remind me of this holiday. 

I knitted in Madelinetosh's Prairie lace yarn in "Stovepipe" . This is a wonderful, soft 1ply yarn that knits very, very well. It really was such a pleasure to knit this yarn. The colour is almost like a faded denim and works perfectly with most of my wardrobe. 

The pattern was easy to follow but be warned, there is a lot of counting and referring back to the chart involved in the sections where the fan pattern evolves. This is not a knit you can do on the go.

Whilst I love the fan pattern, I made few changes to the overall pattern in that I included fans only on the increasing part and then once again on the decreasing part which leaves the entire mid-section in the more simple holy pattern. My reasoning for this change is that most of the middle section will be wrapped around my neck and I thought it was a little pointless to have this intricate pattern where its not really visible. And to me, to be honest, it makes more sense to just have it at the beginning and end.

I also lengthened the scarf by about 40 cm because I really wanted it to wrap loosely twice around my neck. 

After blocking it ended up in the region of 2.4 meters from top to toe and about 45 cm in width. 

This was quite a bit of work but despite this a really enjoyable knit and I can imagine to do this again in exactly the same way, just with a different colour. 

Happy crafting reader !

Daybreak Scarf I

While knitting yesterday in the glorious sunshine in my garden I mused about the difference between my knitting and my quilting. When I quilt I usually work on one singular project until it is finished and then I start another. There are very few exceptions to this and those are my long term projects. I would hate having multiple WIPs lurking in unsuspecting corners.

But when I knit I behave totally different. I am happy to have four projects on simultaneously and often find myself knitting an hour or so on one project and then switching to another. I find this opposing behaviour rather amusing.

I have indeed been knitting up a storm and am very happy about it. Quilting inspiration and ideas pop on a regular basis into my head but for now they stay there and don't make it to the cutting table. And that is fine, I just go with the flow. (although there really are two baby quilts for recent new arrivals to make....)

My latest finished knitting projects is the Daybreak Scarf by Stephen West. This scarf has caught my eye for a long time but I struggled to decide on the right wool until I came across the Zauberball from the German company Schoppel. Zauberball is a wonderfully vibrant variegated yarn that comes as a 75% wool/25% Nylon option or a 100% wool and both in a fingering and lace option.

It just so beautiful and combines so many colours. When quilting I love using variegated thread and its the same in knitting. I ordered Zauberball in 'Papagei' from Didadu in Germany but there several online stores also in the UK that carry this brand. The accompanying contrasting yarn that is required for this scarf is Madelinetosh Light in the colour Antler which I bought at Loop in London.

 

The scarf knitted beautifully and much easier than I originally thought. And the variegated yarn made it fun to do as the scarf constantly changed character with every new colour emerging from the Zauberball.



This particular colour combination has yellows, mustard, blue-green, turquoise and red morphing into pink.

 


I added at each beginning row a drop stitch as the scarf would otherwise be difficult to block. I knitted the large size which really isn't that large and just right for early spring weather. My lovely colleague Xia to whom I gifted it will hopefully get much use out of it.





Happy Monday, knitting and stitching !

A new Winter scarf

This scarf, I finished a few week ago started live as a sweater but I soon realised I didn't like it as a sweater, so unravelled it all and started a large scarf.



I knitted this one again over a long period of time, mostly while travelling though the last third at home as it gotten rather heavy.

This scarf is made from Madelinetosh Merino DK in Mineral and was bought at Loop Yarn here in London and I love this treasure trove of a shop.

I think I used 6-7 skeins on this, hence the heaviness, and it measures about 2 m by 46 cm and was knitting in simple seed stitch which makes it look maybe a bit more like a blanket than a scarf.

 

Whilst I am really happy with the scarf and love wrapping myself into it, I must say on hind side, that it really is very heavy and I don't think I would wear it on a 3 hour walk or something like that. But this is just a small issue. Mostly I just love the incredible softness of the yarn.

A knitted baby blanket

Over the past couple of months I engaged in a bit of knitting because I will be made a aunt again in June. Needless to say the entire family is thoroughly overexcited. And the best thing of all is that my brother and his grilfriend also live in London which means I hopefully will get to see my little niece often.

I love knitting but find little time these days. My mother knitts even more and  loves knitting for my nephew and all the small children in the extended family. Oddly enough I don't like knitting jumpers for children and I think that is because it seems such a waste given that they grow out of in six months time.

But baby blankets is something totally different. I love making these knowing that they will be treasured and used a long time. I didn't use much of a pattern but it is knit very much like the wonderful baby blankets that pop up on the Purl Bee every so often.

Like the first one I knitted, this one also uses Madelinetosh yarn which is hand dyed and divinely soft. I bought this combo at the delightful Loop Yarn in North London.