A quick fix

By | July 3, 2010

I’m a sucker for completing projects, for crossing items off my to-do list. Making progress isn’t enough: I need to finish projects on a regular basis, or I get as antsy as a junkie going through withdrawal. So, in need of a quick fix, I turned to my UFO pile.

Sad to say, I found a lace scarf that was all done but for the sawtooth edging at the end. (Oh, why had I set it aside?) Once I found and deciphered my skimpy notes, and figured out how to get the end to match the beginning (ah, perhaps that was the reason!), it was done in no time.

Jolie

The scarf measures 7 x 60″ (18 x 152.5 cm), all from one skein of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine.

Jolie’s close-up

I really liked working with that yarn. It’s a nice blend of 50% Peruvian wool, 20% superfine alpaca, and 30% nylon, with a heathery, almost rustic look. Since it passed the itch test—

You know about the itch test, right? Stick a washed and blocked swatch against your skin and under a bra strap or into your waistband, and go about your day. If you’re dying to remove the swatch in just a few minutes, look for another yarn. If you forget the swatch is there and it falls out of your clothing hours later, you’re good to go.

—I’m tempted to use it in a sweater, maybe something cabled, maybe something that plays up the yummy colors. Rather than the 3.5 mm (US size 4) needles I used for the scarf, I’d most likely use 2.75 mm (US size 2) needles. Well, that’s where I’d start swatching, anyway. Or I’d try Ultra Alpaca Light on 3.5 or 3.75 mm (US size 4 or 5) needles. But it’s a slightly different blend—50% Peruvian wool and 50% superfine alpaca—so it would need its own itch test. I’m a little sensitive to alpaca, you see.

When I started this scarf a year (or two?) ago, I didn’t have any real notion of writing the pattern up. (Hence the skimpy notes.) But in a fit of “I don’t want to work on what I should be working on,” I went ahead and wrote the pattern anyway. You can find it on Patternfish.

I had high hopes of completing another pattern today, but… well, we’ll leave that for another blog post.

1 Comment