Monday, September 18, 2006

Learning by Doing

That's what we call it here in the homeschooling world when a person runs headlong into a brick wall tries something out to see if it works. It can be something such as learning to flip a skateboard and land on it, or divide a big number by a smaller one, or, say, make a scarf with a cable.

This is my Desert Island yarn.
That is, if someone said, "You can only knit with one yarn from now on," after I came out of my swoon, I'd say: "Araucania Nature Wool, please." (After that, I'd weep.)

I've been trying to get my International Scarf Exchange 3 pal's scarf done on time, but in order to do that, this lovely yarn must have a pattern to go with it. Being a Good Knitter, that is, a well-behaved, rather than an overly talented knitter, I swatched.


And by doing that I learned that a) I love twisted stitch patterns as much as I thought I would (go look at that overly talented knitter I mentioned), and b) they don't work so well on variegated yarn. Next try? Loose 24-stitch cables. On the swatch, I liked them. On the actual scarf, not so much. I have Barbara Walker's Charted Knitting Designs open and am perusing a different cable, a more traditional cable, in hopes that we'll finally get somewhere.

I really want to get this done. The cotton wrap is half-fixed, in that the yarn over is back where it belongs but in some way I twisted some of the loose strands. I'm going to try to drop only a bit of the stitches, rather than all of them. At worst, it'll be tink city. Of course, we still have to figure out what to have for lunch, accomplish some sort of learning, have fun with each other, get the baby to sleep, and wipe the kitchen counters. Brick walls? Comin' right at ya.

8 comments:

meredith said...

try the "my so called scarf" pattern. (google will find it) twisted stitches and variegated yarn that work beautifully together. i just made one for my sister. i'll have her take a photo and i'll post it so you can see it. it's easy and looks great and is fun to knit.

meredith said...

here's the link
http://www.sheepinthecity.prettyposies.com/archives/000079.html

Rain said...

The yarn looks divine. Hope you find a pattern you like for it.

Charity said...

That is really lovely yarn! I'm sure the right pattern will speak to you ;0)

aurora said...

I wish my yarn grew on trees like that...

You are so good with that swatching! I find on variegated yarns, the least complex pattern possible. I have only found this after some horrible-looking mistakes...

bfmomma said...

oooh... pretty yarn! I have to look for that (or is it a local one?)

allisonmariecat said...

I wish I had the discipline to swatch, but I can rarely make myself do it. The yarn is beautiful in the twisted stitch pattern! I haven't done much with these patterns, but I may have to soon.

sarabeada said...

Time for a new post, tell about the bees!