A Hole in My Heart...

…and a mangled cookie cutter. My plan was to fast-track the heart cutting by tapping a shaped cookie cutter through the scarf. The felted was too bouncy. And did you know a cookie cutter collapses really easily when you hit it with a hammer?

I made this scarf just a few days before Christmas. Like most stitchers, it's best to start holiday scarves long before that holiday arrives. This prevents the 11th-hour scramble to finish a gift on time.

Did you just snort? Me, too. It was just a fluke that I started early on this one.

I had a hankering for felting. I'm going to stop here because, although I'm not a stickler for specifics, I am about this term. Felting is packing loose fibers together. What us stitchers do with our knitting and crocheting is fulling.

It took a while to develop a nice ratio of red to yellow rows for "Heartless."

Click here to download the instructions for "Heartless".

You Asked For It...Sort Of

The "Split Personality" two-color cable scarf featured earlier in January was so popular that I've created another fun cable for today, "Aran Braid".

It's easier than the two-color cable. Yes, really.

In fact, with each part a different color, it leads to an intuitive approach to understanding cables and catching onto the color- and row-repeats. I was thankful for this because it's about all I could handle while flat on my back in bed with a cold.

Click here to download the instructions for "Aran Braid".

Texture: This Girl’s Best Friend

I'm a texture girl. Colorwork is wonderful, but given a choice between, say, entrelac and Fair Isle, I'll go with the entrelac every time.

So it's no surprise that I went on a bobbles jag two years ago. Sometimes you just have to get these things out of your system. It wasn't until I entered my 30s that I truly understood that this was the motivation for many artists who create a series of work on a theme or technique.

Anyhow, back to today's scarf. It's a rather simple neck warmer that's just long enough to wrap around your neck and tuck into the front of your coat.

The bobbles add interest, and a knit loop at one corner wraps over a button on the opposite corner to keep the "Drops" scarf from slipping when worn.

The pattern includes a photo tutorial for a bobble.

Click here to download today's pattern, "Drops".

I Am Thankful...

...to be reminded, yet again, that there are germs in the world to cull the herd. Or, in this case, knock one particular gal on her back for a couple of days.

The free scarf offered on Sunday has been extended to the end of the day Monday. Apologies to everyone playing the game with me.

Come hell or high water, there will be a new scarf for Tuesday.

Fast and Furious: The Stitcher Sequel

Have you ever watched a Sheep to Shawl event? It's fun seeing the shearing, yarn preparation, and weaving coalesce as a finished piece in so short a time span.

Participating in one is exhilarating. My experience is with knit and crochet, rather than weaving, and the events have an abbreviated format: We start with clean roving that is ready to be carded and turned into yarn by a team of two or three spinners. As each batch is finished, it's handed to the stitcher. I've been lucky enough to do this at a zoo, near the farm animal exhibit, and at the outdoor Easton Farmers' Market.

Today's scarf, "Enchantment", is a spin-off (nyuk, nyuk) of the shawl pattern I developed for the 2011 event. Spinning started at 9 am, so my sticks were moving by 10. The piece was finished at 2 pm. Yes I’m fast, but the design, worked sideways, is designed for speed, repetition, and visual interest.

Go here for the complete instructions, including a photo tutorial for the one-over-two bind off.

Super Super Bulky Yarn

We're fast approaching the time of year when Polar Fleece goes on sale. These days, though, the material is so popular that unless you're right on the spot when the new price goes up, all you'll see is the well, really weird prints. Really. Weird.

Who in their right mind, for example, though it would be a good idea to print yardage with cartoon-like dancing vegetables? I was gobsmacked when I saw it. And had to buy it. That became my first fleece fabric scarf, knit in simple garter stitch. The colors looked super and the veggies disappeared when I turned the material into yarn.

That scarf went into the first annual Chase the Chill bombing four years ago. And I promptly forgot about it.

Then a friend showed me some examples of arm knitting. How cute and fun.

The really loose gauge, however, doesn't appeal to me. You can double strand two super bulkies. It occurred to me, though, that I could cut polar fleece to any width and use it as the yarn. And thus we have "To Arms".

Which you can download the instructions to by clicking here.

Round and Round

The yarn featured in today's scarf drove me bonkers. Come to think of it, designing the scarf did the same.

Who doesn’t love a soft, fluffy fur yarn in cheerful colors? Of course I bought it as soon as it caught my eye. The problem, though, was creating a scarf that isn't the same-old one- or two-color length of garter stitch.

I tried wraps. Big cables. Color blocks. Stripes. Nothing gave me that "Aha!" moment.

Deciding to give a lacing effect a whirl, I made small buttonholes, marking each one with a long fabric strip knotted into a loop. AHA!

Along the length of the scarf—and inserted while knitting the rows—are unattached loops that move and drape independent of the body of the scarf.

I called today's scarf "Free Wheeling". Click here to download the instructions.