Knitting on

I finished two scarves and only recently got around to photographing them, but sans makeup so I'm headless today. This one's from the book The Country Diary Book of Knitting by Annette Mitchell and is a simple ribbed scarf. Knit in aran weight yarn, it goes quickly. I did a tubular cast on and cast off (great tutorial on that here), and just knit till I was getting to the end of my yarn. I used one skein of Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool, which is 465 yds, and the scarf is plenty long to wrap.


Yes, the Fishermen's Wool is scratchy, but I find that I'm not as sensitive to rustic wool as I used to be. I did give it a bath in Eucalan with some hair conditioner, and that helped. And I may be more kindly towards Fishermen's Wool in the future. It's not bad, once I cleaned it, and is good for sturdy, un-fancy garments.

If I get caught out on the moors, I'll wear it this way. I like her sweater and may knit that as well.


The next scarf I knit was in some yarn I got at Madrona last month. This yarn never made it to my stash, and it feels good to knit something up right away. The pattern is the Curlicue Fringe Scarf by Toots LeBlanc, using their 70/30 BFL/Pygora blend. One skein makes a modest sized scarf, not for wrapping but more for draping, I suppose.


I did enjoy working with this yarn. It was a bit expensive (about $25), but there are 250 yds per skein so it goes a long way. Although it's classified as a fingering weight yarn, I find their yarns to be heavier and thought it could easily be substituted for Rowan Felted Tweed in a sweater. It has a nice heft to it that Felted Tweed does not and would make a very classy garment. I do like the curlicues:


I got the pattern at the Toots booth without really reading it because I thought the scarf was cute, but it wasn't my favorite pattern to work from as it seemed a little loosey-goosey on the details even for this simple scarf. I suspect the original had longer curlicues; mine are a little lackluster in comparison--oh well!


Work on my UFOs continues. I picked up where I left off on my Maddalena cardigan, which turned out to be at the left front. That is, I started this sweater with the left front for some reason, so that was the only piece done. But I've finished the other front and the back now:


I've done this Louisa Harding sweater once before in green:


I liked the mottled yarn so much I had to buy it in another colorway. I'm not sure but I think this yarn (Louisa Harding's Castello) has been discontinued.


The finished version will look like this, although this plummy color is yet a different colorway:

I think I may make the ribbing on the sleeves shorter on this one. It looks kind of bulky on the upper arms and is slow going to knit, with lots of twisted stitches and k2togs.

Next post I'll do a UFO round-up as it seems to be what I'm working on these days. I'm unusually determined to clear the knitting slate!