Anthony

You can probably hear me sighing from my perch in the Library as I post this.

It’s been a trial and error- mostly error- time with Anthony’s scarf.

I love Caron’s products. I always make items super cheap with their stuff and I found all the yarn for my friends’ Christmas presents through Caron.
I went with the tried and true: Caron Simply Soft. Then I looked to the left and saw “Simply Soft: Eco” and thought it was worth a try. It was the same price as the Simply Soft but was just a little bit softer.

I first tried a simple garter stitch but I didn’t like how it looked so I decided to try a rib stitch but I hated how that looked and finally settled on the vertical scarf via garterstitch. Mom said it was a beautiful effect when turning the stitches so they appear as vertical stripes on the yarn.

THEN (yes the mistakes continue) I started knitting but found that it was too short. When I went to graft another piece to it, the seam was so ridiculously clear that I couldn’t keep it like that and respectfully give it to him.

So I frogged it… all of it…

Then I made the swatch and figured out how many stitches I’d need for it to be 6 feet with the needles I was using.

After casting on 300 sts, I found that the sts were completely crammed on the circulars I was using. I dealt with it until my mom’s metal circulars BROKE.

Yup. They broke. The nylon just separated from the metal part of the needle in a clean break. It was saddening but I dealt with it and went out and bought a new pair of bamboo needles to repay mom for her loss and I got me a pair too.

I lost one stitch in the process of trying to get the yarn back on needles. Luckily I picked it up the following row so, while there’s a tiny hole where the stitch was lost, I didn’t lose all that much ego boosting quality.

Having 300 sts on the needles is a bit daunting and I’m finding myself wishing I hadn’t put so many on, but I just keep plowing through and finish every row one at a time. I don’t think about how many rows I have left… and if I’m tired I remember that Anthony is going to be so happy with this scarf (he already is and he’s not seen it yet!).

I’m so far around 16 rows. I’ve got about 10 more depending on how wide I want it. I’ll probably stop when it reaches about 6 inches wide since I feel like a scarf doesn’t have any quality unless it’s thick and wide- better to cover you up in the cold weather!

It’s perfect timing too. The semester is over in just a couple weeks and then Anthony is going abroad- hopefully to some cold countries!- and will be taking the scarf with him. We’ve recently been getting some seriously cold weather and we’re expecting our first snow in Milwaukee so I’m hoping to have it done for him tomorrow so he can start wearing it and hopefully keep warm and comfy while braving the many wind tunnels that populate UW-Milwaukee.

I promise I’ll post pictures as soon as this sucker is done. It’s taking a lot longer than I thought it would. I’m glad to be making it though. I love the feeling of seeing their faces light up when I give people one of my presents. There’s such a gratifying look on their faces that just lights up my life regardless of my stress level.

Yup… pictures will go right here!

Anthony’s basic black scarf
Size 10.5 needles
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft Eco. Colorway Black
Bought at Joann Fabrics and Crafts- Brookfield WI.

It’s all about the positives

It’s getting a little chilly out lately so I put on an old store-bought knit sweater that I used to wear in Middle School and prayed that it still fit.

It did fit but… not in the right way. I didn’t want to simply throw the sweater away so instead I took it apart.

That’s right. I took the whole thing apart.

My mom thought I was insane but also was very impressed at how the sweater easily came apart. She expect me to run into endless snags, knots, felted pieces, etc. because of how old it was. She laughed every time she heard a growl of frustration because she knew I had run into a cut piece that wasn’t intended to be cut, and finally, a “yay” of satisfaction at the end.

I bet you’re wondering: How do I take a sweater apart with maximum yarn-return?
It’s not easy, let me tell you that much. I lost a good amount of yarn because of how I cut and how I took it apart, but I’d rather lose half of it by taking it apart the way I did, than having the entire thing sit at some lonely Goodwill store.

So how did I do it? All you need is a pair of scissors, a lot of patience and arm power.

I started with cutting at the seams, carefully so I wouldn’t cut the main part of the sweater and did that until I had five pieces: two arms, a front and back, and the cowl neck.

I then snipped the end piece where the final cast-offs had happened and began unraveling. A lot of my pieces would end of the other side of the sweater due to my cutting being off so I tied them to the main piece and kept frogging*. It was very tedious but the end result was so worth it.

I then finished off with the yarn into balls, even though I should have left them in hanks, wet them down, and let them air dry rather than forcing them into the balls and letting them stay all kinked etc. That’ll be another project some weekend.

I’m now addicted to doing this. I’m thinking of going to Goodwill and picking up some sad, lonely sweaters for a couple bucks a piece and take them apart in a weekend project.

*Frogging: when you unwravel the knitting you’ve been working on. If you listen it makes the sound of a frog “ribbet-ribbet.” Some people call it “Ripping” because you’re ripping the stitches out, but I think it’s cute being called “Frogging”