Inspiration

Last year a friend blogged about a hoodie-scarf that her daughter had seen at Anthropologie. It was definitely a cool looking idea. While visiting my sister we went to the Whole Nine Yarns and I came across the most incredibly soft yarn from Misti Alpaca (yarn in the middle). I thought this would be perfect for making a hoodie-scarf and bought 2 skeins. I later determined that I would need at least 3 skeins to make this a reality so had my Mom pick up another skein in December 2007.

Skip ahead to last week when it got really cold here and it just seemed like it was time to knit this project up. I knew that with Alpaca I couldn’t use a complicated cable pattern and lace really isn’t ideal for warmth so I went with a one stitch wandering cable that worked really well on another alpaca sweater that I made a few years ago. This should be finished in the next week unless I have to order a fourth skein. I did source a place that has this yarn in stock in the color sage I need.

The next inspiration was just plain hard to ignore. I love Noro silk garden color ways, and so while at the Cast on Cottage this time I looked to see what color was going to jump in the bag (color 264), thinking scarf. I have a sweater that I made several years ago and it just gets softer with wear. Well within a week of buying this yarn the Yarn Harlot writes a blog on this 1x1 rib scarf using Noro silk garden only darn I need an additional color to add to the one I bought. I also checked out the links she provided. So since it will be another 3 weeks before I am anywhere close to my source for silk garden I journeyed down to my LYS, took the silk garden and matched it up with a Kureyon color 153 and cast on using 49 stitches and size 6 needles. It’s cold and yes never mind that there are two other items I WAS working on but these projects were just calling out that they had to be made NOW.

The 1x1 rib is going really quickly and since the color changes are interesting it keeps it from turning into a slog fest like some ribbing can become. So as you can see things are moving along and this should be done soon too.

In the first picture to the right I picked up some Malabrigo silky merino yarn in a similar color way to the Noro silk garden. Eventually these will become fingerless gloves. But I think I will finish my Walkame tunic and Autumn in New York shawl first. :)

Yes it is cold the cats have taken to the fleece!