Friday, March 03, 2006

Finito


I finished the Fuzz That Ate My Teacher scarf!

I decided to finish at the end of the skein, although she gave me two skeins. She had bought with crochet in mind and it always takes about twice as much yarn to get the same total fabric area, so I figured one skein would do it. This is a very easy and fast scarf to knit, I will say, and I would probably do more of them. It was fun designing it, as well. I've started a new blog for my patterns...the link is to the left.

I know there are knitters out there that sneer at the "scarf people" (or so I have heard them called.) These are the folks that got their knitting start making a novelty scarf and have not progressed beyond that point. They come into the yarn store and head for the novelty yarn immediately and that is all they ever do.

Well, why not? If you enjoy knitting scarves and you have no desire for more, far be it from me to say you MUST learn to knit a sweater or you HAVE TO learn how to knit socks! I've done all these things and enjoyed them, but they are not for everyone.

Sometimes, it's just nice to knit something that works up quick, looks beautiful when it's done, and doesn't challenge you in any way. It's soothing, it's gratifying and it is DONE. When I look at the box of complicated projects that have never been finished sitting in my stash, I really do appreciate a project just like this one.

I did take the small portion I had knitted to school on Tuesday afternoon, just to show the teacher what it looked like and as I walked up to her she said, "Oh...don't worry about getting the scarf done! Make sure your wrist gets better first!!!" Hmmm....either she doesn't think everything through that she says, or she plays a deep game. Frankly, after my experiences with her when the squat was in her class, I would suspect the latter. At any rate, I assured her that knitting is one of the few things I can do without killing my wrist and I would be happy to keep knitting. I showed her the pattern and the width and she loved it!

I'll be delivering it to her this afternoon. She is a short lady, so I think the length should be just right. My biggest concern is that the width is a little wider than I'd choose for a decorative scarf to be worn with a sweater, but she thought it was just fine. It's the sort of scarf she'll have to simply drape around her neck...flipping one end over her shoulder is not going to work with this width, but this lady really doesn't have a long neck either, so tieing a scarf around it wouldn't flatter her at all.

I've been thinking of what to charge her; on the one hand, I don't want to devalue the craft, but on the other I don't want to look like someone who is trying to put the screws on a teacher and deprive her of her small income. It probably took a couple hours of dedicated knitting, so I will charge her $10.


In the meantime, the yarn for Laurel's poncho has come in. I'm calling this project Poncho Got The Blues, because surely I will by the time I'm done. I love blue, it is in fact my favorite color (though not this particular shade), but I expect to be quite weary of this by the time it's done. I'm not starting it yet, mind...the squat's Electric Yellow sweater comes first and there is the Olympic baby blanket, which I worked on at knitting class on Tuesday night.

The yarn I bought the other day at the superbowl sale for a sweater for Emily is also going to be a poncho. That's what Emily wants and what Emily wants, Emily almost always gets one way or another. Instead of using the women's sized pattern, I'll have to get the child-sized one instead; it uses worsted weight while this one uses chunky.

I was very proud, though, that Emily chose her new colorblocks sweater to wear for her spring school pictures today. I don't usually buy these pictures, but might have to buy just one with Emily and her sweater. Laurel also put on her Tango sweater I made her a few years back for her pictures...it's getting much too small for her, actually, but she won't give it up and pass it down to Emily.

The squatter is the only one not in a hand-made sweater today, but he does have a home hair cut to make up for it. I managed to cut it so he doesn't look so very much like Moe on the Three Stooges...I'll take him to Great Clips this weekend and get it cut better, but he honestly looked like some sort of elf or even an Orthodox Jewish boy with the long locks in front of his ears, so something had to be done!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just found your blog, and I like it very much. I am so sorry to see you so injured, hoping for your speedy recovery. You are quite the trouper knitting already, with a bandaged hand. I am interested in your blanket, I was looking for your e-mail, but could not find it, so I will ask you here, where is that pattern available to make those triangles, and knit them together as you go. I am also knitting with pain, have a sore shoulder.

JanTink said...

Hi Rita,

The pattern is from Plymouth Yarn and is pattern P263 "Small Mitered Square Baby Coverlet".

British Isles Artworks said...

This is really pretty Jan.

I don't know how to knit, but I crochet. I've been meaning to crochet one of these novelty scarves for myself. I should get going.

Just gorgeous. I bet this is really soft.