The Crafty Bits: Malabrigo Scarf

I some how end up doing scarves in the spring. It makes about as much sense as knitting a tank-top in November and saps the instant right out of instant gratification. Yet it's not all bad, I have a pretty scarf tucked away for that first crisp day in October, something to reflect on in the late August when the sun is trying to bake us into oblivion and the idea of one more raspberry lemonade is threatening to drive me over the edge.

As it stands today is sunny, 67°F, a light breeze out of the north with a black bird singing in the thicket behind our office. Definitely not scarf weather, but then I'm over scarf weather...for the time being anyway...so it's all balanced in some zen karmic sort of way.

Sometimes when you start a knitting project you quickly find the yarn and needles aren't doing what your head wants. So was the case with the Malabrigo yarn. The knitting just didn't feel right and when working with such lovely yarn it felt like a crime to push forward if it wasn't 100% there. As it turns out, knitting wasn't what I had in mind.

Surprisingly it was crochet. I tend to find crocheted pieces bulky, less artistic and less flattering than knit pieces. The drape isn't as nice, the lines are messier...in general there's something not quite polished, about crochet (which if you've seen Zach and Miri Make a Porno (filthy yet hilarious) can be a good thing.) (Those are links to the knit/crocheted goodies that flooded that movie...not porn...just to clarify.) and that's generally enough to keep me on the needles and away from the hook.




In this case though I wanted the messy heavier texture of crochet; something unstructred. Mostly because I adored a scarf from a 2008 Martha Stewart article on breast cancer. After trying a half dozen different stitches, this way and that I landed on a British stitch that had a passing resemblance to the scarf in the magazine. The wonderful suprise was how well the stitch pulled out the colors of the yarn in an almost impressionistic way. Instead of intermitent stripes or bands of colors, they splash together and create a gorgeous ripple across the scarf. All in all I'm thrilled...even if I do have to wait four months before I can wear it for more than five minutes.