Keep an eye open for a large package

Here are Barbara, Elaine, and Liz holding just a small sample of the scarves and shawls that are making their way to Scarves from the Heart.

I'll be going to the post office within the next hour to send the box on its way to Shelly. I hope it helps you reach your goal for collection this year.

P.S. Stand back when you cut the tape off the box cover. It took two people to hold it down long enough to tape it closed.

A Small Sample

Hi Shelly! I'm happy to have been invited to contribute to your blog! Here is a sampling of some of the scarves "The Chicks" and I have been busy knitting for your group. I'll be packing up two large boxes very soon to send to you.

Stay well and keep those needles clicking!

Slipping cogs and frustrating yarn

You've heard the saying "my mind has slipped a cog"? Well, I posted here, and sent out the emails, and didn't mention the due date for the Fall scarves . . . September 22, the first day of fall.

Frustrating comes from working on a scarf that I was so happy with, only to find a knot in the middle of the yarn. The yarn is Encore Colorspun, and I've not had this issue in the past. Not the kind you can untangle but the kind where a new run of yarn is tied on. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal, but the lengths of the color runs are considerably different in this second half and because there is a lot more of the salmon and reddish it looks all wrong, plus the colors now pool.
For now I'm going to set it aside and find another yarn for the fall scarf. No doubt it will get used eventually because I bought two skeins of it and the other has the longer runs of color too. Oh! An idea just came to me, I can do two rows of 1 end and two rows from the other end and that shouldn't allow it to pool and maybe it will still be masculine enough. I'll try to keep my tears off the yarn while I frog it. As I tell my hubby when he questions why I'm taking out a good bit of work . . . it's just practice!

The Challenge of the Fall Scarf

I've been making some men's scarves since I knew that Shelly was concerned about them, but hadn't been thinking in terms of my dad (or grandfather, or big brother!) But last night I started thinking...my father wasn't big on wearing scarves, he was always warm. But, as a man in the 1950s I fondly remember my father's hats - they had to be creased just so, and the brim had to be just so, and much as I loved to touch those "felted" garments, I had to be careful. So, you've probably figured out that "felted" was the word that came to mind. And I looked on line, and found some simple instructions for felted scarves - so, using some "male" colors, I'm going to make a felted scarf for my fall scarf.

Where does the time go?

At this house, it was not spent knitting much. My mother in law was very ill for most of June, and on the 25th she lost her battle with a failing body. She had a good long life, she would have been 90 this coming September, and she had a devoted husband for nearly 62 years, until his passing last December 9. She's in a better place, still it has left all of her family saddened by our loss.

She would not want us to dwell on the sadness, and to honor her we go on with life, certainly not as before, but we do go on.

Summer has barely arrived and I need to assign the theme for fall scarves . . .
this time I'm going to ask you all to make men's scarves . . . so our theme is "Remembering our roots". You can base it on colors you remember your father wearing, or colors that remind you of your grandfather . . . it's a pretty broad theme, but let's do stay to colors the men in the family would wear, as well as the yarns and patterns.

I've just started a scarf using the 'mistake rib stitch' in autumn colors because my father loved to hunt in the fall, and this yarn has all the colors of the leaves I remember from my childhood.

Tell us, what does this theme make you think of?