Monday, December 7, 2009

Hand Knitted Scarves an Adiction

I learned to crochet when I was in 3rd grade. My mom taught me and gave me my own yarn and needle, which I took to school. When I'd think about it and had a few minutes I would crochet. Still being a novice I would crochet little triangles. I didn't know about chaining at each end yet to keep the rows even. I didn't notice anything was unusual I was just having fun crocheting.

I crocheted into my 20's when I finally stopped because the only yarn I really knew about was Red Heart and anything made with it was scratchy and made one itch. I lost interest and went on to other crafts.

I did try in my teens a brief lesson in knitting from a friend and I didn't like it.
A few years ago my cousin taught me to knit. I wasn't terribly interested as I prefer to crochet and again wasn't interested in scratchy Red Heart yarn. Well, it was the only craft she did and she wanted to teach me. So, I really couldn't say no to her or learning a new craft. She told me about large knitting needles and all the beautiful yarns there are now. I hadn't really done any yarn projects in about 20 years. We went to JoAnn's got me some size 19 knitting needles and she showed me which yarns she likes to pair. We paired an eyelash yarn with some homespun in colors I liked. Went back to her house and we knitted. It was really very easy on such large needles. That's when my addiction started. When I saw all the new affordable fun yarns I became crazed at finding new combinations. I finally got to where I could knit a scarf in 4 hours. That's all I knew how to do was knit a large rectangle. Still to this day I don't know how to knit any other stitches. I may have to take a lesson. I'd like to learn ribbing.
My favorite pairings of yarns is when the 2 are completely different colors. Like red fun fur with black homespun or lime green fun fur with black homespun.

My absolute favorite combination was white homespun with ribbon yarn. I just loved the look. I've made probably over 20 or so scarves over the past few years. Many I've given away as gifts, but my favorites I would put in a plastic crate in my bedroom thinking some day I'll sell them. Well the day came. A friend of mine has opened a fiber arts store and she took my scarves on consignment. Part of me didn't want to give up my treasured scarves the other part knew it was time to make money for more yarn!

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