Exercises In Fabric Structure

I know novelty scarves don't make for very exciting blog entries (for most knitters), but I've found the exercise of making multiple scarves very enlightening in many ways.

Gauge, Drape, Texture, Appearance, Function
It has taken quite a bit of knitting knowledge and skill to make many of the scarves I've been knitting over the past month or so, and it's been nice to be able to practice and gain lots of repetetive experience in some of these skills.

Gauge, drape and function are some of the areas where I've gained the most knowledge.

I can't tell you how many times I've picked up a new novelty yarn, or combination of yarns, and I've needed to try out a number of different size needles to get the kind of hand to my fabric that I want it to have. Deciding on whether the yarn will make a better accent scarf or a scarf that will actually be used to keep warm in the Winter is another big factor in how I decide to knit up a yarn. I have to also keep in mind that scarves need to look presentable on both sides, and keep some form or shaping, so they don't stretch to five times their length with ongoing wearing.

Finally, knitting these scarves has also been an exercise in maximizing the scarf I get for the amount of yarn I have...especially since I need to factor in the cost of the yarn when I calculate the cost I will sell the scarf for.

All-in-all, this has been a very educational period of knitting for me, and being able to experiment on a smaller scale has been quite useful.

Other Internet Oddities
Amazing what useless things can be created using the internet. Here is what I look like after being "Simpsonized".



It takes a little while to get through this process, so don't link to it unless you have a little time. Credit to Jean Miles for showing me this link.

Current Knitting
I got a few more rows done on the front of the Aran pullover, but not enough to merit a picture on the blog. Just look at the last post's picture and envision the last open diamonds at the top completed.

I did take time off from Aran to make a couple more scarves (as you may have cleverly intuited from my blog intro for today). The first one is an accent scarf, made out of multi-color ribbon.



This was once of the most challenging yarns I had to work with in my entire stash. I wanted it to come out without being too holey, but also have some drape to it. The other scarf I finished is a deep red scarf made with microfiber chenille-like yarn.




I thougth you might want to see what the yarns looked like for these two scarves, so here's a closeup.