New Knits and a Giveaway

When I'm not making jewelry, I usually baking, cooking, making cards or knitting. Yay for knitting! The only problem with my love of knitting is that the finished products keep piling up. I know you're thinking I should either stop buying yarn and slow down my knitting, or try selling some of it. Well, I can't seem to stop buying yarn and I do try to sell some. But I don't try very hard. I have some scarves listed in my other etsy shop, A Peaceful Life and I have some bags and scarves for sale at Dragonfly Gallery in Soldotna. These two outlets don't even make a dent in the pile of knits I'm looking at.

Soooo, it's time for a giveaway!

 I bought this gorgeous hand-dyed yarn from Phydeaux Designs. Check out her etsy shop where you will find tons of lovely yarns and fun patterns. I purchased a beautiful neck warmer pattern from Rabbit Ridge Designs. It was a match made in heaven. Here is the resulting neck warmer:

Sorry, but that is NOT the item I'm giving away. What a tease, right?

Naturally, I had a bit of that multi-colored yarn left over. I searched through my massive yarn stash and found some solid green pima cotton/tencel blend yarn that looked great with the Phydeaux yarn. I turned to one of my favorite scarf patterns and here is the result:

It's about 62" long and 4" wide and the body of the scarf is done in seed stitch, which adds a nice bumpy (but so soft) texture. The ruffle is done with the leftover yarn from the neck warmer.

 As you can see, 60" is long enough to go around your neck twice. Yes, this is the item that I'm giving away! All you have to do is leave a comment and I will use a random number generator to select the winner. Because this is a holiday, I'm going to keep this giveaway open through the end of the week. I will select the winning number late on Friday, January 4.

May the odds be ever in your favor!

(Yes, I stole that line from the Hunger Games.)

A New Scarf Takes Shape

Surprise -- I found 2 skeins of yarn that I forgot I had.  This is almost as unlikely as discovering I have too many beads.  hehe.  This yarn is 100% superfine alpaca.  I really don't know what classifies it as superfine, but I DO know that it is amazingly soft.

I selected this basket weave pattern, which looks a lot more complicated than it really is.

The yarn is a yummy forest green with a touch of olive.  Here's a close-up of the fun pattern.  I hope I have enough yarn to make a scarf of decent length.  I'm not really good as estimating that.  Yet.

I guess, whenever it was that I purchased this yarn, I also purchased 2 skeins in a different color.  Those skeins are a variegated blue/purple/burgundy that is just wonderful.

I finished another scarf ...

... and even though I adore it, I think I need to list it.  How many scarves can one woman wear?  I used 3 very different yarns to knit this scarf and I knit it the short way.  Most scarves are knit starting at one end, this one started on the side.

It's a bit wider than most of the scarves I make, so it could be worn around the shoulders instead of around the neck.  This next photo shows the 3 distinctly different yarns I used.

I think it's yummy.

3 New Scarves

Yes, I've been a knitting fool.  Knitting is my activity of choice while watching movies in the evening, Xena curled at my feet.  This new variation on a drop-stitch pattern has me slightly obsessed.  If I was capable, I would alter a sweater pattern to use this stitch.  I am so not capable of doing anything other than following an existing pattern.

These first 2 scarves are knit with Noro Cashmere Island yarn, in different colorways.  Both are yummy!

Using the same stitch, this last scarf was knit with a variegated blue alpaca yarn -- super soft!

Each of these photos is linked to the listing on etsy, if you simply must have one!

Another of my Collections/Addictions

Scarves.  There, I said it.  In addition to my obsession with measuring cups, pottery, jewelry and shoes, I also love scarves.  At least here in Alaska, scarf-wearing is a year round activity, so I can almost justify every purchase.

I know what you're thinking.  Vicki, you knit your own scarves -- why do you need scarves made by other people?  Well silly, I knit wool scarves.  Those are simply not suitable for warmer weather.  Hence, I need silk scarves and lightweight woven scarves.

I found this great shop on etsy, Scarf Guy.  Back in March, in preparation for warmer weather, I purchased two gorgeous scarves from Fred, the Scarf Guy.  His weaving is of impeccable quality and I'm thrilled with both of my scarves.

This first one is a blend of silk and cashmere and is incredibly smooth and soft. 

This one is also silk and cashmere and is a deep chocolate brown.  Yum.

Please visit Fred's shop to see (and drool over) his beautiful work.

Blue Scarf in Progress

I started knitting a new scarf a few days ago.  This yarn is variegated in all shades of blue.  It's 100% alpaca and is from Chile.  It's soft and such a pleasure to work with.  I have a ton of it because, well, it was on sale from one of my favorite yarn websites.  To get the sale price, you had to buy a ton.  With big plans of sweaters and such, I went ahead an bought the ton.

Now, I see no sweater in my future with this yarn.  I tried.  It just wasn't draping in a way that was appropriate for a garment.  Oh well.

The pattern  is full of slipped stitches, which give the scarf the woven look, which is best seen in the 2nd photo.

What do I do with all these scarves I knit?  I sell some at my booth at the State Fair.  I TRY to sell them in my second etsy shop, A Peaceful Life and I give lots of them away to friends.