Pattern: Clutch from One Skein by Leigh Radford
Yarn: Manos del Uruguay, Adobe colorway
Yardage: slightly less than one skein – about 100 yards or so
Needles: size 13 circulars
Modifications: The Manos is thinner than the Lamb’s Pride Bulky called for in the original pattern, so I added 5 repeats to the body of the clutch and 5 rounds to the handle as well.
Pattern: My own – let’s just call this the Earl Grey scarf
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Night, color Oberon
Yardage: about 150 yards, less than one skein
Needles: size 6 straights
My mother received her birthday gifts, so now I can show them to you! It was a great deal of fun to use new yarns that I’ve never worked with before. The Manos is a real pleasure. It’s not the softest of yarns, but the merino content made it softer than I expected. The Kidsilk Night is glorious. I found that the shiny bits, though, are the teeniest bit scratchy. In the future, I’d probably use Kidsilk Haze instead. Still, what a yarn! Now I know why people rave over it.
You presumably noticed that the clutch is felted. I’ve never felted anything before, and I have to tell you about my adventure in doing so. I live in an apartment building that has a grand total of one washing machine and dryer for all the tenants. I read up on felting, and discovered that sometimes when one felts, one can mess up the washing machine. This didn’t seem very fair to the people I share a washing machine with, so I looked up hand felting and found this useful tutorial. It certainly works. However, I am apparently a moron at felting. I wore gloves, but in rubbing the wool against itself, apparently I caught my fingers in it. Both of my index fingers had enormous blisters on them at the end of it. I still have ugly little knobs on my fingers, actually. I also got VERY worn out. It was a very intense exercise, and I was sweaty and messy and exhausted when I finished. I asked the ladies at Pick Up Sticks about this while I was at Stitches West, and they said, first of all, that they’d never seen someone mess up their hands like I did while felting, and secondly, that I could avoid that by using a stick to hit and rub the wool next time. I think I shall. Also, I feel special for being unique. Because unique makes you special. So those knobs on my fingers? Badges of honor.
I’ll still use a stick next time.
The scarf was just a simple vine lace pattern, and since I was trying to do it as fast as was humanly possible, there are mistakes, even with a simple pattern like that. Ah, well. I’m not a total perfectionist, and I still liked how it looked. Since you can’t see it too well in the picture, here’s what the yarn looks like:
It’s really a gorgeous grey, with just a hint of blue. It’s one of those colors that I fall hard for but can’t wear myself, so it’s nice to have a mother with coloring that differs from my own. I love greys very much, but they do not look good on a person with reddish hair and hazel eyes. The finished scarf is intentionally very short. I wanted just a little wispy bit of lace that could be tied around the neck – sort of a scarflette, really. Mom looks good in such things, and I liked the idea that it would be appropriate either for work or a night out.
So once again, happy birthday, Mom!
Oh, and did you guys notice the spanking new url? I’m stupid excited about it still.
