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Sunday 10 February 2013

Pirouette

It takes some oomph to get up again after making a mistake.  More so when you make the same mistake twice.  The Semele scarf was a bit of a surprise when I ran out of yarn, even after being weighed.  Twice.  So to do the same style of scarf again - measuring by weight - was, in my mind at least, tempting fate.  Still, I had an idea what I wanted to do.

Here is Pirouette, inspired by Storm Warning by Liz Corke.  This was made with SweetGeorgia Yarns Silk Crush; a 50/50 superwash merino and silk blend.  It is 375yds / 115 g (Only in Canada will you see such a blend of metric and imperial measurements...).  The colour is called "At the Ballet" and since it is the January 2013 Sock Club yarn, it is not yet available to the general public.  The beads are called "Roses & Diamond".  The finished dimensions are 60 inches measured straight from tip to tip and 10 inches deep at the widest part.




This is a slim crescent shaped scarf with three primary motifs.  
There is a slender faggotting column along the top edge, 



a stockinette panel which defines the overall shape and a beaded sawtooth motif on the bottom.


The bead work was fiddly and slowed down the knitting process but it offers a fascinating design element that gives a lot of glamour to a very simple pattern.  I think I'll incorporate more of this.  

There are a variety of methods to place beads;  I used a tiny (0.75mm /US 12) crochet hook.  



The hook is small enough to slide through the eye of the bead but still has enough of a hook to actually catch and hold the yarn.  

A note on beads: I don't remember where I read this, but I heard that Czech beads were of a much better quality than most others.  I was able to find Czech beads in a local art supply store in a 24 g tube (about $5.00 CDN) and there was only one bead that I couldn't use.

The big drawback I see to incorporating beads is the project is no longer a good candidate for travel knitting.  The risk of dumping your tube of beads is just too great.  So as I sat at Mount Pakenham yesterday while my son had a snowboarding lesson, I cast on a pair of socks using this.  This is BFL Socks by Fleece Artist in Nebula (I think).


And I think I'm about ready to finish the Autumn Arbor Stole by Anne Hansen.  Lets see if I can do it without my dog 'helping' me again.

2 comments:

  1. Oh, still gorgeous- even more so now that it is complete! I can't get over how that garment showd the patterning in the yearn to PERFECT advantage!

    If I had dyed that yarn, I would want a pic of this use of it.

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