March 27, 2012

Edges and Turns

Upstairs in the stash room I had this roving.

It was a long piece of BFL-mix roving from Blue Moon (the colourway is ST-1) and because of how it was dyed, it had repeats. I pulled it apart into those repeats, and got four matching pieces of roving.   I marked the beginning of the repeat on each of them, and then spun them all onto their own bobbins, all in the same direction.

Then I plied them into two big hanks of two ply -

and now I have self striping, long repeat yarn that I am so wild about that this morning I made Joe hold it for a while.  (I can't help but feel that he wasn't as thrilled about it as I was, but we've been together long enough that he knows to feign yarn enthusiasm.)  This yarn is quite possibly the most exciting thing that's happened in a while around here, and that's saying something, because that scarf I made on Sunday is a little bit sparkly.

I thought about it all evening.  What would I make? What would be a good use of it? I love the colours, I love the long stripes it will make, and I love the idea of something scarfy or wrappy, or shawly. I only have about 350m of this stuff, and it's worsted weight, so I'll have to be thoughtful of the size - but I really, really, really wanted something that shows off how this yarn's colours go, and I ended up searching for the perfect pattern the way a 17 year old girl looks for a missing cell phone.  I was a creature possessed. 
For a while I thought the answer was Lintilla.  It isn't. It's the wrong gauge, and even if it was the right gauge (because I know I can rig that) ruffles are yarn pigs, and I don't have a huge amount. 

Then I thought maybe the answer was Hitchhiker, but it wasn't.  It's charming - but I started thinking maybe I could get my self striping yarn to do something really, really interesting.  Maybe I could play up the stripes? Find something that would vary the width of the thing? Maybe change direction a few times? Turn a few corners?  Knit on the bias? That got me thinking about Stephen West, since he's got some funky shaped scarfy things.  I looked at Thendara. That wasn't quite right.  Too pointy. Same problem with Flagstone, plus I think those play up colour, but not the kind of colour I wanted.  

I considered the classic multidirectional scarf, but I've been there and done that. I thought about Stacked Wedges, which is rather fetching but too... wiggly.  I looked at Heartbreak (too big, not enough corners.)  I found Windward, and thought that was it for a while - it was more organic than the others, had lots of edges and turns... it had that post-apocalyptic shabby chic that I think I like, but that wasn't right either.  I think it's too big, and really is suited to a lighter weight yarn than I have.  (I think you really need fabric to drape to capture the "I'm so cool my clothes are rags" look.  My yarn wasn't going to do that.) 

The search wasn't going well at all, nothing was quite right.  They were all too wiggly or too long or too wide or two stripy or not stripy enough - or they didn't suit my yarn, or I didn't have enough yarn, and I think that unless one of you knows the exact right thing, then I'm going to go rogue.  Cast on, start - and see what happens.  Maybe I can figure out something long, pointy, partly knit on the bias, with edges, curves, turns and corners that isn't too big, wobbly, wiggly, or geometric.  Did I mention that the shape needs to be both geometric and organic? At the moment I have a whole page of a sketchbook filled with impossible to knit things that I'm going to try and knit anyway. I've snipped up a paper scarf into bits and put it back together, I've swatched a very crooked thing, and I have a feeling that this way lies madness, because my idea of the scarf I want to knit is more of a feeling than a plan...

but I'm casting on anyway.  What can go wrong?

Posted by Stephanie at March 27, 2012 1:57 PM