On knitting a scarf

I love knitting. I like the fact that you can take a single thread and turn it into a fabric. It's also easy to do anywhere. When we were in Scotland last month I easily knitted a washcloth a day, just when we were out and about in the car.

There's almost too much choice when it comes to 'wool' (be it thread made out of wool, cotton, or any other fibre that can be spun for that matter) though. Not that I'm really complaining, but I do have much more 'in stock' than I could possibly knit with for the foreseeable future. This fact, however, doesn't stop me buying more!

When we were in Oban last month, I had to pop into Whitmore and Hamilton to see what they had and, of course, I came out with something! I bought two lots, one being pastel multi-colour cotton (see picture above), which, as I'll be using it to make washcloths for my Elsie May and Bertha shop, can be construed as a legitimate business expense (especially as it was on offer), but the same cannot be said for the baby alpaca, silk and cashmere blend I also came away with (see picture below). I've not the foggiest idea of what I'm going to do with this as yet.

I had the same problem when we went to the Unlimited Colour Company, which is a wonderful shop on the High Street in Ullapool (we went there during our May Scotland trip this year - a beautiful trip from Invergarry). They had such a beautiful array of wool, so I just had to buy some didn't I? I bought a couple of hanks of a Manos del Uruguay (the name mean the Hands of Uruguay) silk blend in cerise purples and oranges (see picture below). I do try to buy British when it comes to wool, but as this is from a not-for-profit company that gathers artisan's work together and brings economic and social opportunities to rural women, I'm more than happy to make an exception. The alpaca blend I mentioned above is another one of their products.

The other wool I bought that day was actually 100% silk and was produced by Collinette Yarns in Wales. This one is multi-coloured pinks and purples as well (see next picture).

Fortunately, I quickly found a use for the Manos cerise purpley one, as a couple of days after buying this we went to the Mallaig Art Gallery where they sold some Ness handbags. To my delight there was one in just the same blend of colours as the wool. If I had the handbag, I could knit a scarf to match. My other-half, kindly agreed to my buying the handbag as my wedding anniversary present (21 years and still counting).

So as well as my other making activities, I've been knitting my scarf, though as I am making other stuff at the same time it's still a work in progress. I'm using a really simple pattern, K1, yarn forward, K2tog, that gives an open loop effect without too much hard work. This scarf could be knitted at any width, you just need to work in multiples of three. Work four rows in garter stitch at each end to get a neat start and finish.

It's about five foot long at the moment, so I'm just going to add a couple more feet worth and then call it done. I don't want to end up with a Dr. Who (Tom Baker) scarf! But, you can make it as long or short as you desire.

TTFN

Louise