Good reads

I was reading Amy‘s entry on reading your knitting and it reminded me of this scarf on the left, circa 1993-1995.

I first saw this scarf when I was working in downtown Boston during a particularly nasty winter (one of the 5 record snow winters in the 7 winters that we lived there). One of the ladies at work wore this beautiful scarf that she purchased on her last trip to Ireland. I asked if I could borrow it over lunch one day, and charted it out. Took the chart home, and knitted this scarf up in a wekeend, and had something nice and warm to wear for the rest of the winter, while waiting for the Green Line in Brookline

If I were to do this all over again, I would make the 2 cables on the sides mirror image of each other. Other than that, I’m pretty pleased with it. My version of the scarf has 11 repeats and is 8 inches wide and 5 feet long, plus the fringe. I think the original had 13 repeats, but she was a tall person. I am not.

See pattern detail. And if you have broadband (or the patience), here’s the high resolution picture of the pattern detail, embedded cat hair and all.

Can you read and transcribe this pattern?

Unfortunately, I didn’t keep the project notes for this scarf. Or if I did, it’s been 4 or more moves since. I wouldn’t even begin to know where to look for it. But the good thing about being able to read your knitting, you can recreate just about anything.

Back to the present. I have not been thrilled with anything on my knitting needles lately. I would knit a couple of rows, and I would get bored. So I’ve been spinning. Once I got started with the thick and thin spinning, I couldn’t stop. I looked around to see what else I had sitting around, and I found the rovings I bought 2 springs ago. I had already split it and prepped it for spinning, but I decided to split it yet again, to be closer to the size that I wanted the spun yarn to be.

Blue/green: superwash merino from Paradise Fibers; 8.5 oz.; 770 yds.
pastels: 50s wool from Banana Belt Yarns; 14 oz.; 640 yds.

Currently plying up another hand-painted roving: I spun it fine and am plying it using navajo plying method. Pictures later this week.

…and if you’ve made it this far, yes, I realize that the picture of the scarf detail is “upside down.” Just stand on your head while you read and transcribe.