Red, Red, Red

Company has departed, and things are settling back to normal, if normal means so much rain lately that my way out is blocked by a swollen creek! The bridge on our road out is almost inundated, and leaving would mean taking a chance that I couldn't get back. Ah well, there are worse fates than being housebound on a rainy day.

The second red scarf was finished, blocked and given away. I did get a picture, albeit on my kitchen table, with the red tablecloth. Not much contrast, but not much needed really:



This is Kiri from this blog. Her pattern is very clearly written, and the knitting just skipped along.

Here is a detail:



I had an interesting time trying to figure out how much yarn was left as I knit, and how much was needed for the edging. I was knitting straight from the knitted/dyed fabric (see this post), and really could not gauge the amount of yarn left. So, I started counting rows, to see how many were eaten up with each pattern repeat.

Once it was clear I would be running out of yarn, I naturally started knitting faster and faster. Well, hmmm, it didn't work. I ran out before I finished the edging.

So I needed more yarn. I thought of using some of the white angora from the Leaf scarf, which would make a nice, ermine-like edging, but decided that would limit the usefulness of the finished scarf, making it festive, rather than utilitarian. Since I expect its owner to travel with it, I hunted up some yarn from the stash, and overdyed it:



The lighter colored ball is the *before* yarn, the dark is the newly dyed merino (*why* I didn't dye both skeins is anybody's guess: now I have the remains of the dark, and the *other* light, pish-tosh).

The skein weighed 100 grams, I had dyestock mixed up at 2%. Since the scarf yarn used was painted, at 2%, I did a 4% immersion ratio (200 ml of 2% stock) to get a darker shade, so the edge is a nice dark outline.

I was so anxious to finish the knitting on time, I could not wait for the yarn to be totally dry. I balled it up slightly damp, and knit away!

It, like its other red lace counterpart, went into a cloth bag for its new owner:



I love this fabric: I bought it to make a table runner. There was enough fabric to make these two bags too: they are lined with red silk (what else?).

I expect this will be a travel scarf, like the Leaf Lace scarf, and the cloth bag will protect the lace when being shoved into and pulled out of travel totes. The stuffed bags will also make good pillows, should the need arise, on a plane or train.

Both scarves are just large enough to provide some comfort if the plane is chilly, and nicely wrap a neck in drafty cathedrals, or on windswept beaches or moors.

I had so much fun making them. More lace is in my future, maybe even a travel scarf for me! Hmmm. Perhaps red?

Happy New Year!