Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Knit Along: Hand Spun Bouquet Scarf from Loopy Mango - Day 1


"What can you recommend?"
One of the great pleasures of this blog is that I don’t pick my own projects.  You may think that’s odd, but I think of it like walking into a restaurant and ordering the special, sight unseen--you come away with the most amazing experiences you’d probably never have picked for yourself.

When is it okay to cheat?
This scarf is the kind of high-drama accessory I love, but I don’t know that I’d have chosen it from all the other lovely offerings at Loopy Mango.  Something as quick as Handspun Bouquet almost seems like cheating.  You should see me as I started to knit this--I laughed as if I’d just found the secret shortcut.  Like the lady who dumps canned stew into her own crockery and takes it to the church potluck--and gets away with it.

Not that this is cutting corners--no ma’am, this is one stunning bit of fiber.  So cool and artsy that I shall be intolerable when I wear it for the first time.  (Some might quip that I’m verging on intolerable now...yes, I hear you).  I’ve spent time just oogling the yarn as I wound it into the massive (and in, my eyes, un-portable) ball, taking notice of each individual rosette.  Each of those lovely flowers is more charming by the sheer fact that I didn’t have to make it.  

Want to know the ugly truth?
I couldn’t make something even as simple as one of these rosettes.  The ugly truth is that while I can knit up a storm, I am craft impaired.  I may have written two parenting books, but I’ve botched more MOPS crafts than you can shake a glue-gun at.

This, however, I feel confident I can handle.  The hardest part about this project?  Keeping my 19-year-old daughter from stealing it when it’s done.

1 comment:

Camy Tang said...

I made mine in less than an hour! My yarn is pink with pink and green rosette thingys. I ended up doing 6 stitches per row rather than 8, though:
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/camytang/garter-stitch
I can't wait for the weather to get cooler so I can wear mine!