New! Desktop Wallpaper for January, 2006 - More Yarn!; and, the Project it Inspired
Welcome to the January, 2006 offering from Folkcat's Free Desktop Wallpaper Gallery!
Stop! In the Name of Color is a picture of some wonderful, colorful yarn I acquired over the Christmas holidays - Lana Grossa's Mega-Stoppino. This was the one yarn that I fell in love with when I visited the good yarn shop in Syracuse, NY. Anyone who knows me knows that I can't resist this sort of bright mix - pinks, oranges, yellows, blues, and purples, all swirled together. I could gaze at this all day.
Stop! In the Name of Color
As with all my other wallpapers, Stop! In the Name of Color is free for personal use on your own computer. To decorate your desktop with this - or any of my other wallpaper offerings - just visit Folkcat's Free Desktop Wallpaper Gallery. You'll find full instructions for downloading your choice of images.
...and the Project it Inspired...
Yesterday, I talked about my list of projects I'd like to get to, and one in particular - the Edgar Scarf from Knitty.com. I had a notion that it would be the perfect project for the Mega-Stoppino yarn featured in this month's desktop wallpaper, since the pattern shows off the colors of a striping yarn nicely.
Well, I talked myself into starting it - and that's what I did last night.
Edgar Scarf (chevron diamonds on left) and Ruana
The picture is a WIP two-fer. The flash brought out the colors more accurately, but did flatten the textures. The chevron diamonds on the left are the beginnings of the Edgar Scarf. The stripes on the right, in shades of purples (yes, they're all purples - some more red than others), are the Ruana I've been hinting at. I've got about a foot done on each so far.
The Edgar Scarf is a fun, quick knit. It's actually almost straight knitting - you work on single-point needles, and the shaping is done with a S1, K2tog, PSSO in the center (decreases 2 stitches) on even-numbered rows. After a certain number of those, you've reduced your total number of stitches, and have to cast on more on each side to bring the next diamond shape out.
If there's a trick for memorizing the pattern on this one, I haven't found it yet. Each time you decrease, you have fewer stitches to knit before you get to the decrease point. The last decrease you did is difficult to distinguish from the ordinary stitches, so it's little help in finding where to knit to. It may be possible to work backwords from the total number of stitches on the needle, knowing that you're losing 2 in the middle, but I haven't taken the time to work that out yet.
The Ruana is being worked in 8 yarns from my stash, all in the bulky range (well, there are a couple of worsted-weights, but I'm working them double to match). I'm using dice to decide which color comes next, and how many rows of it to knit. That's the simplified version of the story, anyhow. There's actually an artistic decision to make after the roll of the dice (Is this the same color I just used? Is it too much like the color just used?), and I have an additional random factor that throws in two accent yarns here and there. But you get the idea.
It's working up nicely - I expect it to be a warm, comfortable replacement for my Ugly Crochet Poncho. My only concern is that it may be too warm for the drafty-window cover-up I'd be using it for. But in that case, I'll just have to do another one in lighter-weight yarns, won't I?
Like I need another excuse for a project to knit!
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