part one of a series

First giftee off the list in this year's holiday knitting jamboree


Sisterly accessories to go with the Fetchings she got for her birthday not long ago, from the pink merino yarn that was in my grabbed bag of goodness from Hopyards Spinnery. I'd made the mistake of being so enthralled that visit with so many choices that I took a little of this, a little of that...and now I'm figuring out just what to do with 100-200 yards each of the yarns I chose. Crazy! I plan to do better when I return there for this week's sale.

Fortunately I've got a sister who likes lots of color and texture. The scarf idea came when surfing along, I hit this scarf on Hedgeblog (you'll need to scroll down but you can't miss it) , she received it in a swap , and said it was Misty Garden, a feather and fan stitch scarf in ScarfStyle in variegated mohair, but here it was done in bumpy yarn.

I liked the effect, but having only 100 yards at best that fit the thick and thin bill, I put it together with some other Farmhouse Yarns that kinda sorta shared colors, and this scarf resulted. You know what? I like it. Feather and fan is always fun to knit, and on size 10 needles, it was done before I had time to think too hard and rip it out as not working.

Here's my knitter's version of the play-by-play. fyi, the yarns are named after the farm's sheep.

When I got to the end of it, I realized a couple of things.
1- if I'd wanted it to be symmetrical, I should have knit half the length, held the stitches on scrap yarn, knit an identical half and then grafted them, because feather & fan stitch is quite directional.

But, to quote one of my favorite books, The Vintner's Luck, " God hates symmetry".
Yeah, OK, I'm quoting a fictional bisexual fallen angel with a fondness for fine wine but, he's right. (BTW? its a great read.)

Where was I?
oh, yeah, that slightly peculiar hat.
2- I still had some of each yarn left over. A coordinating hat, its your basic beanie- loosely based on BonneMarie's Chichatpattern- with the raspberry Andy's Merino held together with : at the bottom edge, the Lumpy Bumpy, then with the Wool by Bessie. When that ran out, it was 2 strands of the merino itself. When I got to the very tippy top, I ran out with one round left to go. Not to be defeated, I topped it off with a yard of merino in Key Lime.So now I have 199 yards left of that color.
I'm not sure if I love the total effect but knowing that this sister walks her little dog at 5:30 am all winter, she'll, at the very least, stay warm headed in the dark.