Two Weeks and Counting

It is two weeks until the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the Northern Hemisphere winter, and I am practically counting the minutes. On days when the fog lasts far into the morning it feels as though I am living in a world of perpetual twilight (northern latituders feel free to quibble with our "long" winter days). Outside the sky is very white, while inside buildings it is just dark - natural light is precious and fleeting. Despite the fact that I am now further south than I was in New York City by a full three degrees it feels like the winter is interminably longer, made all the more confusing for my instinctual sense of the seasons by the fact that, while cold enough to be winter (or at least, late fall), and though the leaves are nearly off the deciduous trees, at the same time things are starting to green up.

This is a poetic way of saying I missed my short window of opportunity to photograph the Basketweave Scarf. (It is also a way to complain about the shortness of winter days. I do not have nearly enough good interior lighting to make up for it.) Badly lit interior shots will have to suffice, and no modeled shots, because that is just asking too much.



Project Specs:
Pattern: Basketweave Scarf (2x2 stitch pattern, 6 row repeat, over 30 stitches, with a slipped stitch edge)
Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted in Charcoal, ~ 1.5 skeins (approximately 350 yds)
Needles: Clover bamboo 14" straight US size 4 (3.5mm)
Size: 72" x 5.5"
Started: 5 November 2008
Finished: 28 November 2008
Pattern mods: How can there be? I made it up.

This yarn was gifted to me by Opal last year (!) and I have been sitting on it waiting for the right project. I think the yarn matches the stitch pattern perfectly. The second photo is a little more representative of the stitch clarity, but you can tell that different angles highlight different aspects of the yarn, and you can really see the lovely texture. I love it, and am tempted to keep it for myself, but this is the Year of Scarves (for Christmas), and I have need of a manly scarf. I still have 2.5 skeins of wool left, and I was thinking Henry would be great, but it will probably be too dense. Any ideas?

I worked up through row 72 on Henley (rav) but stalled because I need to figure out the simultaneous shaping of the back and front. Mission: Failed, though I did get a good 2" done on the body. I think I might like to swatch the lace pattern as well before proceeding (now there's an idea) to make sure my gauge will not be too crazy different. I am using a much different yarn after all. In retrospect I probably should have done that before I even started. Oh well...

Because of the Henley impasse I accidentally cast on for another project:


I swear the colors are not that clown car-ish in real life.

I finished spinning the second ounce of the BFL from Allspunup I talked about yesterday. I now have an important decision to make - how should I ply it? I am concerned about just doing a regular 2-ply because I don't think the colors will look that good when mixed together, specifically the blue and green together (blue+yellow and green+yellow I think would be fine). I was careful when I split the roving to split it into relatively even pieces, but I am sure my paltry spinning efforts have not preserved the color repeats exactly, especially since it is not that evenly spun, and if it did then it is a miracle.

That leaves Navajo ply. I'm kind of scared of Navajo ply, and I don't know how thick a yarn it will make (pretty thick I would guess). I guess this is all a learning experience and I should just go for it, and I still have 1/2 of the roving left to try something else, but...

posted by Carrie @ 11:57 AM