Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Sometimes I show actual knitting content...

As usual I have more UFOs/WIPs/WTFs than I can keep track of, but the WIP getting the most attention at the moment is this one, the multidirectional Silk Garden scarf (pattern here).
I'm using Noro Silk Garden and size 8 needles. The whole scarf is done in short rows, hence the multidirectional pattern. It's a fun pattern (very easy) and deceptive, because each triangle seems to take forever and not be getting you anywhere, and all of a sudden you notice the scarf is getting quite long. I initially ordered (from Ebay) three skeins of yarn, based on this statement from the pattern: "It takes approximately 200 yds. of yarn to make a 4’ scarf, 300 yds. to make a 6’ scarf." Later on they mention something about 5" being a good width, so I assumed those measurements were for a 5" wide scarf. Assuming 100m/skein, I thought three skeins should be sufficient for my 6' long scarf. Well, after about half the first skein I realized there was NO WAY it would be enough (perhaps I should've used larger needles, but I like the density of my fabric, and I don't start over, in case you hadn't realized that already). So I ordered another skein. Of course now I will probably have too much, but I want fringe so all is good.I do have a pet peeve/rant about Noro in general though, and it concerns the inconsistencies between skeins of yarn in the same dye lot. Now, I understand how they dye their yarn, in very long hanks that are then reskeined, so some differences between skeins are to be expected. That said, it seems to me that each skein should at least have the same colors! This may not be apparent from the photos because of my artful scarf folding, but there was NO green in the first skein of yarn, and there has been in the next two. The second skein had hardly any red, and all three have had much more brown/black than advertised. I'm not sure I'm happy with the colors I've ended up with (having chosen a colorway that appeared to be, and was advertised as, blue, purple, and green, with some brown), but I'll take it. It's also a bit odd that all the purple keeps ending up on one side of the scarf, making it look a bit unbalanced. However, these are problems that it's likely no one else will care about notice, and like I said, I don't rip things out and start over!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean about Noro - I usually just cut out whatever colour I don't like!

Your scarf is gorgeous. x