Friday, February 12, 2010

Sittin' and Knittin'

Even though quilting is my passion and I'd have to choose that over anything else if I were told I had to give up all kinds of handwork but one, knitting is more relaxing for me. Lately, at the end of a day, sitting in front of a fire with my knitting needles and yarn has been feeling pretty good.

About a month ago a good friend, who is a knitter extraordinaire, was knitting herself a warm, winter scarf in an intriguing and lovely pattern. She explained she had seen the stitch in a book of different knitting patterns and thought it would work up well in a scarf. It was called the Berry Stitch.

She wrote the pattern out for me on an index card and said it was really easy to do. I eagerly cast on some nice cotton yarn I had. It only took me three tries to figure out the stitch (some of us are slower learners than others), but once I had it, I was off.

I wanted my scarf to be much narrower than hers and to be more of an accessory worn with an outfit rather than for warmth.

The thing I really like about this pattern is that it looks nice on the backside, too.

I think you can see the "berry" feature of the stitch a bit better on the above shot.

The yarn I used is actually more of a gold color than I was able to capture. I took 12 pictures in various locations trying to get a truer color representation, but none of them turned out any better than the ones posted above. Oh well, I think the idea was to show the knitting pattern more than the color of the yarn. Now I'm starting another one in a gorgeous, deep electric blue. And my daughter just picked out some more yarn for me to make one for her. Her choice is a deep rust color.

Hope I don't run out of evenings in front of the fire before I can finish the next two scarves!

15 comments:

Jennifer Jo said...

It's beautiful.

Mama Pea said...

Hey, JJ - Well, thank you, ma'am! :o)

beth said...

very nice! how long do they take?

Mama Pea said...

Hi, Beth - Oh gosh, I couldn't even begin to guess how long it took me to knit the scarf. But it truly did seem to go very quickly. I don't think I ever put in more than maybe one hour a night and I was always surprised to see that I had gotten several inches done in that time. I used #8 needles and this one is only 24 stitches across. The one I'm making for my daughter will be 36 as she wants it wider. Hope that helps a little?

Katidids said...

Very Pretty! I like he narrower also. I've not noticed that attern before, is it one you could share? It really looks fun.

Katidids said...

I bet if my keys were not sticking what wrote would not look so garbled!

Erin said...

I think I've seen that stitch in one of books in my library stack! You can really tell how nice the stitch is in that color, too. My last scarf/neck gaiter was 30 st across, so I know what you mean about it not being too wide! I like them warm, but not suffocatingly so, that way I can wear them right up to spring!

Karen Sue said...

Very Nice...now that the evenings are busier, I'm missing the evening 'downtime' of knitting and reading and whatever...
But someday not too far away, it will slow again.

Mama Pea said...

Hi, Katie - I'll send you a copy of the pattern. I think you'll like it.

P.S. Ya gotta stop dumping your coffee on the keyboard!

Hey, Erin - Aren't we due for some new pictures of your knitting adventures?? Huh? HUH?

Hi, Karen Sue - Better squeeze in all those leisurely evenings you can. It's gonna be outside gardening season and light until 9 o'clock before we know it!

Jenyfer Matthews said...

Beautiful!

Someday when I have about 2 extra hours in each day and move to a colder climate, I'm going to have to learn to knit. I love sweaters and scarves :)

Mama Pea said...

Thanks, Jen. As soon as you locate the source for those extra 2 hours a day will you send it on to me? Much appreciated.

Jody M said...

I really like that scarf. Knitting is something I want to take up, but I've promised myself that I can't until I get my hooband's afgan done, which is crocheted.

Mama Pea said...

Hey, Jody - I have a blog friend who just said that as soon as she finds an extra two hours a day, she wants to learn how to knit. I think that's a problem all of us face. We just can't do everything we want to do. :o)

RuthieJ said...

Good job Mama Pea! I like that pattern.

Mama Pea said...

Thanks, Ruthie. Now that I've got the pattern down, I can even do it while watching TV. I've started on the second scarf, this time for Chicken Mama in a beautiful deep rust color she picked out.