Monday, May 11, 2009

Yummy yarn, yummy project

So, what do you get when you combine a yummy cotton-blend yarn with really long color changes with a pattern that makes a nice squooshy thick scarf?


You get a beautiful, pettable, washable scarf that will go with every coat in the world and will never get lost in the back of the closet.

I love this yarn - it's Taiyo from Noro, a company known for it's really long blocks of color and insanely itchy wools.  So I was super-excited to find the same color design in a softer, kinder yarn.  Those long blocks of color are what make the stripes ... that, and the fact that the scarf is knit with two skeins of the same colorway, each started at a different end when it's joined.  
I probably could have gotten by with one skein and just pulled from opposite ends of that skein, but that has the potential to get all tangly, and besides - now I have enough left over for a matching hat!



6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great scarf, Gretchen - will you do one for me? K's mom

Gretchen said...

K's mom - send me yarn, I'll make you a scarf. It's about $18 a skein, and readily available online.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, I'll take you up on that offer! How many skeins should I purchase? How long and wide is the sample scarf, for which you used 2 (?) skeins? K's mom

Gretchen said...

My scarf is about 6" wide by 56" long, which is long enough to wrap around my neck so that both ends lay in front, but NOT long enough to do the "fold the scarf in half and tuck both ends through the folded end to make a giant squooshy donut around your neck" trick. I haven't washed or blocked this, so potentially it could end up larger than that after washing, particularly with encouragement. I ended up with this length because I was getting bored with knitting it, and there was a knot in one of the skeins that I was going to have to deal with if I made it any longer :)

This scarf in this size used 120 grams of the Taiyo, which is sold in 100-gram skeins. So I could use one skein to do you a skinnier scarf, or you'll need to use two skeins to duplicate what I've got. There will definitely be enough left over to make either a hat or some fingerless mittens (which are actually really useful, if you've never tried them).

You can find Taiyo for about $17 here: http://www.yarnbow.com/Yarns-Noro-Taiyo/c1_114_1219/index.html?osCsid=e4c33c38c0c2220070812b60c59118d6

Yarnzilla has limited colors available for about $14:
http://www.yarnzilla.com/default.php?cPath=1_1111_1446

I think that "10" is the colorway I used, just FYI. If there are any colorways you like but you're not sure how they'll look, let me know - I can check and see if anyone on Ravelry has used them, and send you a link to their photos so you can see how it knits. You can also check on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=taiyo+noro&m=text

So, are you thoroughly confused yet? :)

Anonymous said...

I am now looking at the websites you mentioned. Hard to decide! I'll get two skeins, love the idea of a hat. Katherine has one that I like, will try to find a photo where she wears it.
Did I ever send you the flickr site of my cousin? She goes under Strickanfall: http://www.flickr.com/photos/20526837@N00/
K's mom

Anonymous said...

I did order yarn. The hat I like is worn by K on p. 4 of my flickr in the picture where she and Lise sit on either side of a frog statue. Oh, I will certainly pay an honorarium for your work! Do you need the size of my head (Big!)? K's mom