Letters
Giftalong 2017: What Me Worry?
Dear Ann,
It’s early days! Early days I tell you!
First, good news: I have unlocked my first Giftalong Achievement.
This is the Parallelogram Scarf, by Cecelia Campochiaro, from Modern Daily Knitting Field Guide No. 5: Sequences. The yarn is Freia Fine Handpaints, in our Lichen-Vintage kit.
It has a ribbon candy thing going for it that is very seasonal. It also has points (being a parallelogram), that I did not manage to get into the frame.
I was happy all the way through this project. Between the light, lovely yarn, with its fascinating color modulations, and the sweet, syncopated rhythm of the sequence-knitting stitch pattern, I didn’t want it to end. I loved the clever way the pattern handles the color changes, 3 stitches in from the edge. And after all that knitting, there were only 4 ends to weave in.
I could have made my Parallelogram Scarf longer (and used up all the yarn), but I like to bind off a scarf before it becomes so long that it wants to trail behind the wearer or drag its tips on the ground.
See? It’s folded in half and it still wraps twice. Tiny John Lennon loves it.
And now I can make pom poms with the remaining Freia nubbins, which may have been my scheme all along.
Next on My List
Now, with one FO to my account, I’ve got Giftalong Fever. Must knit moar gifts!
First up: a Sheep Sorrel Hat and Mitts set, with Delicious Mystery Yarn That We Can’t Talk About Just Yet.
I cannot wait to get this yarn on my needles. It’s perfect for the Sheep Sorrel Hat and Mitts, and for the know-the-provenance-of-your-yarn ethos of Hannah Thiessen’s book, Slow Knitting.
Time Permitting
A couple of weeks ago I saw a young woman walking on Broadway, wearing a large-gauge garter-stitch scarf. It had that homey, handmade look that in New York usually means they got it at Barneys or someplace with similarly shocking prices. It was color-blocked, with abrupt and obvious color changes; no “fade” at all.
I loved it and of course immediately had the dangerous knitterly thought: I could whip that thing up in no time, and Carrie would look great in it.
Problem: I don’t have any yarn that weight on hand.
Solution: I have these lovely single skeins of Plucky Knitter Bello Worsted. If I double them up, I’ll get a pretty chewy gauge going.
This vague plan got galvanized today, when Bonne Marie Burns’s Chic Knits blog featured a handy clip & save chart for combining yarns for quick knitting. If Bonne Marie thinks this is a viable plan, that’s good enough for me. I haven’t even cast on yet, but my scarf is already nicer than the one I saw on Broadway.
Is a scrappy, big-stitch scarf the knitter’s answer to the Hail Mary of edible gifts?
I sure hope so!
Love,
Kay
I, too, got knit-a-gift fever when I hadn’t intended to knit any gifts at all. It forced me to finish two wips, finally use a kit purchased a couple of years ago, and resort to stealth knitting so my husband won’t realize I plan to give him those socks he knows I’m knitting. He thinks I’m only knitting sock #1 so far. But sock #2 gets shoved in the project bag when he comes in the room.
I feel like this annual virus is good for me. Clears out the cobwebs!
“Doubling them up”. I used to knit small blankets doing this, and I loved the subtle changes in colours I could achieve. Funny, I’ve never thought of doing that with a scarf, until now. Thanks Kay. BTW the Parallelogram Scarf is exquisite.
I typically will knit my parents and siblings new hats for Christmas (though my sister has been asking for another sweater. . . , and I am not ignoring the husband – he doesn’t really wear hats) but decided against it this year. While hats are fast knits, I find myself bogged down with knitting goals I want to accomplish that are a bit overwhelming so adding even a few Christmas hats wasn’t in the cards. The parallelogram scarf came out wonderfully and I can’t wait to see the pom poms! Also cannot wait to hear about this “Delicious Mystery Yarn That We Can’t Talk About Just Yet”!
OK that’s very sensible, Christine, which is why I’m doing the opposite….
Delicious Mystery Yarn is from a source that you know pretty well. My lips are sealed!
Much as I always hang on your every word, this is the first time that I have felt it urgent to save three different links. (If readers have not clicked on the Hail Mary of Edible Gifts, they are cheating themselves).
Isn’t it good? My favorite line: “more about that never.”
I expected to see my mom’s fallback treat there, rice crispy treats, Made seasonal by the addition of miniature candy canes stuck in the middle. (And in the 1960s, sometimes dyed red for further seasonality.) They can also be individually “wrapped,” and the wrapping tied in place around the candy cane with holiday ribbon…or yarn!
Thanks for your styling tip. I would never have thought to fold a scarf before wrapping. I can’t wait to see pictures of your scrappy scarf.
As always, I love taking a few minutes of the day to read your posts… Thank you for this daily ritual. And also, thanks for the reminder about the holiday pretzel treats. My dear Mom (RIP) used to make an iteration of these. Me thinks I’ve got to make some this year, as it’s been way too long. Enjoy your holiday knitting!
As soon as I saw the photo of those things I could actually taste them! It’s such a funny article.
Great idea! Knit like the wind!
I love the scarf, of course, but I especially love the ‘tiny John Lennon likes it’. That just made me so happy.
Tiny JL is always so supportive.
I wish I knit fast enough these days to do a gift-along. Post-stroke, it takes for-freakin-ever.
It’s always good to hear about yours, though!
100 percent of your knitting has to be for YOU!
Oh good, I can now say I have permission to knit for myself! When I finish sweaters for both daughters, I guess… Then it’s back to the Tin Can Knits cardi (Harvest) I’m knitting myself. Sleeves ho!
Thanks to A Year of Techniques and your field guides, each daughter-in-law will get a hat and a pair of Apres Anything Socks for Christmas. AYOT has had me making and saving gems over months, and I really appreciate upping my skills. (I never thought that I would actually enjoy provisional cast on.) And the field guides are also great for trying something new and quick. I got two pars of socks out of five skeins (colors reversed in second pair) in record time, Thanks, Kay and Ann and Jen and her husband for some wonderful experiences!
Kay, thank you so much for mentioning Bonne Marie Burns’s Chic Knits blog. So many blogs, so little time; therefore I’m always up to see a recommended blog from a trusted source (that’d be you!) and I’m delighted to add the Studio Chic Knitting blog to my list of go-to blog URLs.
I searched MDK to see if there were more recommendations and didn’t find any. Maybe sometime you and Ann could work up a list of favorite blogs for us? That would be lovely.
Aw, thank you Nan! Bonne Marie is one of the old-school bloggers who is still going strong and doing great things.
Woohoo, I was just about to suggest Bonne Marie’s chart, but of COURSE you had already seen it. She was telling me about it on Monday, and suddenly there was a blog post. Brilliant!
Your Parallelogram Scarf looks fabulously lush. It’s big!
I wasn’t planning to gift knit. But now I’m knitting a gift. Oy!
Sorry/not sorry! Say hello to dear Bonne Marie!
Thanks for linking to BMBurns yarn combo post — I often combine yarns but never quite know how it will turn out. Although experience has taught me that two strands of sock yarn equals one strand of DK. Now I can experiment with confidence!
You can do it!! I have faith in you!