“If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love you very much.” ~ Mary Oliver, How I Go to the Woods.
It started in the middle of summer with a pretty skein of yarn I had the itch to knit with and it ended with a soft and silky scarf to wear by late summer. I kept some notes and thought I’d share my simple “recipe” here, in case you’re looking for a similar scarf.
One skein of Sweet Skein O’Mine 100% silk boucle in the Oh Deer colourway. (300 meters/328 yards. 100 grams/3.5 oz.)
5.5 mm (US 9) circular knitting needle – 80 cm (32″) or longer.
Loosely cast on 12 stitches.
K2, KFB, knit to the last three stitches, KFB, K2.
Repeat this same row as many times as you feel like it. Then add one row of eyelets whenever you want to change it up:
K2, KFB, *YO, K2Tog*, KFB, K2 (Repeat from * to * across row.)
I had 226 stitches on the needles when I figured it was time to cast off and I had just enough yarn left to do it. Be sure to keep an eye on that because, depending on your tension, you may need to cast off sooner than I did.
Use a stretchy bind-off of your choice. There’s many helpful tutorials on Youtube. I used this simple one demonstrated by The Blue Mouse Knits.
Abbreviations:
KFB – (knit in the front and back of the same stitch) YO – (yarn over needle) K2Tog -(knit two stitches together).
Notes:
I placed a marker after the first K2 and one more before the last K2 to remind myself to increase.
Gauge isn’t important and it’s difficult to measure it over the boucle stitches. If you’re a tight knitter, you may want to go up a needle size for some extra drape.
The increases at the start and end of every row gives it an elongated crescent shape to wrap cozily around your neck. The approximate size of mine after blocking is 14″ wide by 70″ long.
Featherlight and airy! Perfect for anyone like me, who doesn’t like wearing a bulky scarf unless it’s below zero. The silk boucle yarn is a lovely texture to knit with. I’ve already started another one in a dreamy lavender. Wishing you a peaceful end of summer.
To feel closer to nature and the changing seasons, I highly recommend reading the poetry and prose of the late Mary Oliver.
1: a continuous often plied strand composed of either natural or man-made fibers or filaments and used in weaving and knitting to form cloth.
2: [from the idiom spin a yarn “to tell a tale”] : a narrative of adventure: a tall tale, a roaring good yarn.
Well, hello. Welcome to my first blog post. Glad you found your way here. Truthfully I’m not sure what I’m even doing here, but it’s not unusual for me to jump into something and figure it out as I go. So here goes….
I should probably start by telling you a little about myself. I won’t get into the entire history of my life thus far because I’m a woman of few words unless I’m comfortable chatting with you or I’ve enjoyed a few sips of wine or approximately half a beer. Since it’s early morning as I write this, one or two cups of coffee is as strong as it gets.
My name is Susan and I’m known mostly as Sue. I used to be a writer, a book reviewer, a bookseller, and until about a month ago a yarn shop owner. Yes, somewhere along the way I got off the track of books and tangled up in the wonderful world of wool. As mentioned earlier I’ve been known to jump in and out of interests. Only this time my business owner preoccupation stuck around for a solid fourteen years.
I’ve had many other paying jobs since the first babysitting gig. Most of them were terrible and just a means to pay the bills. None of them are worth mentioning. I was really never good at working for other people. I suspect that growing up the youngest of seven children gave me a strong dislike of being told what to do. It’s also the reason I discovered early on that books, paper and pencils can provide a comforting escape from the chaos and conflicts within large families.
I attribute my early love of reading to my literary-loving paternal grandmother who lived with us until I started school. Mostly she was there to help take care of me because I came along later in my parents’ lives when they both had full-time jobs and all the other kids were many years into school. Some were even senior high students. I was definitely a surprise baby, but fortunately a welcomed one.
Childhood favourites shared with Grandma
My British-born grandmother read with me children’s classics only and my parents didn’t care much about what I read, as long as I wasn’t out in the neighbourhood causing trouble. My mom, however, read almost everything I wrote from an early age and fully accepted my fictional friends as being as important to me as the real ones. She was my first captive audience and she died far too soon. I lost the creative drive to write along with her, but that’s a long story for another day.
Now I’m the grandmother. Which, of course, means that I’ve raised children of my own. Not alone, thankfully. I’ve managed to muddle through all of that married to their dad for over thirty years. There comes a time in your life when you realize you’ve actually done the most growing up right along with your children. Being completely responsible for human lives keeps you standing on high alert at all times, ready to slay dragons with a spatula if necessary. It can be exhausting and frightening and exhilarating all at the same time.
Becoming a grandparent is the blessing for those years of heavy lifting. I know that sounds greeting-card corny, but I can imagine all of you grandparents nodding because it’s true. In my mind I don’t look like my grandparents did. Dare I say old? Certainly all of mine were well into their senior years by the time I made my late debut.
Fifty-something is not old. Still, I don’t seem to know as much as my grandparents did. Or maybe that was an illusion and all along they were just like me: curious enough to keep learning. That thought provides the perfect segue to why I’m attempting to write this blog.
I’m here to find my writing muse again. I feel that I have much to say about being creative and curious. Recently I’ve been closing one chapter of my life and starting another, so it seems like as good a time as any to jump into something new, yet old and familiar. I’ll probably talk too much about books I’m reading and projects I’m knitting. There may even be some waffling about the trials and tribulations of finding my elusive writing voice while I try to plot a novel. Eventually I’ll figure out how to properly add photos.
If you’re still here reading this to the end–thank you and I hope you’ll visit again. If I lost your interest way back at the start, well, that’s fine too. No hard feelings.
A Roaring Good Yarn 