Saturday, January 27, 2007

Lacy scarflet, a touch of love on the looms

With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, I wanted to make a few holiday related items. The first one I decided to do was a little lacy scarflet. The picture above of the completed design evolved from four previous attempts that looked good on paper, but not so good on the loom. Originally, I wanted to do a heart shaped design using the eyelet stitch, but after doing about ten or twelve rows of failed attempts I finally went with the mock crochet stitch. The scarflet measures about 24 inches long and 6 inches wide and was worked as a flat panel using 16 pegs of the 24 peg blue Knifty Knitter, and two strands of worsted weight yarn held as one. Using a chain cast on, the beginning two rows and the last two row were worked in the garter stitch pattern to provide an even edge for the lacy scarflet body. In order to keep the scarflet attached without a pin, I loom knitted three “bobble” buttons and attached them so the scarf could be fastened along the outer edge. When worn, I turn the top edge back to form a collar. Although a pin is not necessary, I have been experimenting in order to decide which (if any) pins I should wear with this little scarf. Also, it’s amazingly warm considering the openness of the lacey stitch.

Update: This pattern has been published in the Spring Issue of Loom Knitter's Circle Magazine. It is also available as Lacy Scarflet in My Pattern Box on the right side bar of this blog.

On a non-loom knitting note, I attended a crazy quilt handbag class all day today. The class was conducted by a wonderful lady called Barbara Randle of B.Randle Designs from Birmingham, Alabama. Ms. Randle is the author of two books on crazy quilting, travels extensively to collect unique fabrics, and conducts workshops all over the world teaching her craft. This was the most fun I’ve had without a loom in my hands in a long time. I walked out at the end of the day with my completed designer bag that I made (see picture below).