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Thursday, April 18, 2013

More ruffles

Yup!  More ruffle scarves!

I did the two scarves last night (the Bernat Truffle in purples I posted yesterday, plus a red and burgundy version; I think it's Sashay, but the label disappeared, so I'm not sure), then my daughter gave it a go with the Bernat Truffle in reds.  She did about half before bed, then started again in the afternoon, almost finishing by the time I left to teach a class.  When I came back several hours later, she'd worked up the other two balls of Bernat Truffle I had (the black/grey and blues), too!


I came home with two more balls of yarn - another Bernat Truffle in green, yellow and blue, plus a peacock blue Starbella Flash, plus a second hook.  I had to lay claim to the Starbella, because she was ready to work up both right away!  She promptly worked up the Truffle yarn, and I just finished doing the Starbella.

Two days, seven scarves!

Yeah, we're hooked.  Pun intended.

When I picked up the extra yarn and hook, I had a chance to talk to my manager about doing this during $5 Yarn Night on Saturday, April 20.  For those in Edmonton, if you want to see how to make these, I will be at the Clareview Michaels from 1-3pm.  If all goes as planned, I'll be set up in the yarn section instead of the classroom.

Hope to see you there!




Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Finally! My first ruffle scarf

So I've been fussing with various types of ruffle yarn lately.  The scarves made with this yarn are really popular right now, and they're very simple.  Just a few stitches of basic knit or crochet across.

Simple, however, does not mean easy.

This stuff has been driving me crazy!

I don't knit.  I can knit, but I'm rather terrible at it, and I just don't enjoy it enough to put in the effort to become good.  My younger daughter knits and, after failing with crochet, she knit one of these scarves up in no time at all.  Well, relatively speaking, since the ball of ruffle yarn she was using had about twice the yardage of other brands.  It's a pretty awesome and very looong scarf.  She could have done two, instead!

I've started making a scarf with ruffle yarn several times over, but just can't seem to get the hang of it.  I've met people who can crochet a scarf in about half an hour, and I just don't get how they can do it.  The yarn is obnoxiously irritating to work with.  It drives me nuts, and it doesn't seem to matter what brand I use, either.

Then someone on the crochet instructor's facebook group put up instructions on making a ruffle scarf using a latch hook.   Yes, the same latch hook used for rug making.  Today, I finally picked up a latch hook and gave it a go.

Wow, does it ever work!  The technique is completely different.  Rather than rows, it's made up of clusters.  It's not my pattern, so I won't put instructions here, but I am already thinking of different ways I want to try it with the latch hook.  My daughter is also wanting to try it, too.

I think we will need to pick up another latch hook!

So here it is, my first ruffle scarf, modeled by my daughter and her cat.


I used new Bernat Truffle yarn, which is currently on introductory sale at Michaels for $1.99 (the regular price is $6.99, so you might want to stock up - our you can buy it from my Amazon shop here.).  Though only 37 yards in a skein, it makes up a very long scarf - it's doubled up in the photo.  I picked up 4 different colours of this yarn, and am now pretty excited about trying them all out!


Thursday, April 11, 2013

A New How-to

Here's one for the folks who wanted to know how our version of Chevre de Provence in our Easter basket turned out.  I just published a step-by-step over at Squidoo.


If you give it a try, I'd love to hear how it turned out!


Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Wandering Woolie Mascots

Today, we were introduced to the new Wandering Woolies, Ewenice and Byarn!  :-D

Sent from Anna's phone