The Web Scarf

A few years ago, when I was really broke. I made ALL my Christmas presents. As you can imagine some of these gifts were better received than others (we all learn which of our family and friends 'deserve' handmade!) but overall I think most people liked what they got.

For my work colleagues and friends (I was working three part time jobs at this time so there were a few of them) I made versions of the web scarf. I made individual versions for each person, based on their personality and what colours and textures I thought they would like. It's a bit risky making scarves for Christmas when Christmas here is generally 30 degrees Celsius plus, but I could barely pay the mortgage at that time, let alone spend money on gifts. I used every kind of yarn under the sun, from mohair to ribbons, wool to cotton (a lot of them from stash) and they all came out great. Sometimes I made the flower motifs from a contrast yarn, which also worked well.

I kinda regretted at the time not making myself one, but by the time I finished all the gift versions, I was a bit over it. But when it came time for my latest scarf project I revisited the web scarf...

The yarn is Sirdar Peru. I am a sucker for novelty yarns and quite often buy a couple of balls when I see them, usually they end up as scarves, which explains why I have more scarves than anyone living in a temperate climate should have. The colour is one thread of teal twisted with a light/bright/dark blue strand that results in a subtle variegation (fyi it's shade 555 'pico').

I almost made this into the Cold Shoulders, the capelet from the Stitch n Bitch Happy Hooker book but one row from finishing I came to my senses and unravelled the whole thing. Don't get me wrong, the pattern is lovely but I have to come to terms with the fact that vintage is starting to look a bit silly on me. When you are in your 20's a crochet capelet says 'cute, fun, individual' but when you are in your 40's it's more likely to say 'I want to be home for dinner at 4.30 and in bed by 8'.

Anyhoo, in fear of stepping into nanna territory, I decided to go the safe route and make yet another scarf. I rescued this project from the flood and it's all I've had to work on for the last little while. I should have been able to whip this up in a few evenings but due to tiredness and overwhelmedness (with the house) it took ages. I left off the flowers for the time being but may add them later - I just couldn't be bothered.

Here is a close up of the stitch pattern. It's super-easy, a fairly new crocheter could do it.
So, no more scarves for me. Except maybe one other. Have you seen the Summit Shawl over at knitty? I reckon it'd make an awesome scarf! As you can tell I am very much a 'process-oriented' knitter.

On house news. We got the cheque for the furniture on Friday and went to our favourite Swedish mega-store first thing on Saturday morning to replace our bookcases, only to find that the colour and style we want has been recalled globally because of some quality issue. Some very bad words were said at that point since there will be no news on what is happening until at least June - aaargh! I have since asked the insurance company to cancel the cheque and give us cash instead so we can try and find a suitable alternative elsewhere. So now we are just waiting for that to happen.

Also we are still waiting to hear what will happen with our cars. My insurer alone is handling 13,000 (yes that is thirteen thousand!) write-offs from the storm and presumably the other insurance companies are all simlarly inundated. At least we have transport while we wait though.

In the meantime the need to do ironing and hem pants for my fella to wear to his new job meant that we had to clear a path into the sewing room. Joy! Okay, so it is still mostly filled with cr*p and we now have boxes around the edges of the living room as well but at least I can get in there. Not a moment too soon, I was starting to go a bit funny. Ooooh, what to sew first?