Finished Chevron Scarf

I finally finished this scarf on 23 December, but because we were have 20 people over for lunch on Christmas Day (what were we thinking – it was our first ever time hosting Christmas!); I didn’t get to sew the ends in, and to block it.  For reasons that are described below, I wasn’t really happy about blogging the finished object until it had been blocked.

First, the finished object:

I know that some poeple have loved knitting their chevron scarf so much that they didn’t want to finish it, but not so much for me.  I knitted this for myself, and as I was knitting it, all I could see were the aqua and purple, and register the way that the almost white pale blue was pooling.  I’m really the type of woman that wears a lot of neutrals, and I was afraid of the colour. I would have frogged it after a few centimetres if my mother hadn’t told me to “press on” to see the finished effect.

Now, I will wear mine, and my husband says that it is flattering, but when I see other chevron scarves like this, I feel envious (and wistful).  Why was I so tempted by the lary colourways when shopping on the the Blue Moon Fiber Arts site?  Anyhow, here are the specifications:

Pattern: Chevron scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts “Socks that Rock Lighweight” in Ms LaRock and Lapis

Modifications: 2 selvedge stitches (garter) on either side to help contol the roll – first stitch slipped purlwise

Needles: Clover Bamboo 3.6mm (Japanese size 5)

I’m glad that I finished it – but do wish that I had gone with something with more brown in it.  My lovely new winter coat (worn in Beijing) is a very dark brown.  It looked awful before blocking – lumpy, weirdly coloured and “homemade” in the pejorative way.

 

It needed a good wash prior to wearing because it had been doused in white wine while I was making it  – one of the hazards of drinking while knitting!  I washed it in some Australian Lavendar Wool Wash, spun it in the washing machine, and then blocked it fairly ruthlessly. My blocking kit (for the Hong Kong knitters out there) was purchased at minimal expense at Spotlight in Kowloon Bay.  In the quilting section there are rust proof T-pins (rust proof doubles the expense, but you don’t want rust marks in any garment), and I bought 3 metres of gingham (colour chosen by the pink-obsessed small children).  The gingham makes a perfect blocking sheet.  I usually lay it out, either on a spare bed, or the window seat cushion (which seems to be made from a good high density foam).  Here it is blocking:

The blocking really made all the difference – without it, the colours weren’t working together at all; and the scarf looked misshapen.  After blocking, it has a lovely drape.  I’m still not completely convinced about the Socks that rock – if I had made socks out of the Ms LaRock, I think that they would have pooled horribly.

Merry Christmas!

We’ll be eating this for breakfast tomorrow.  Its Nigella Lawson’s German Plum Tart from “How to be a Domestic Goddess” (modifications for cherries as suggested in the recipe).  I love this book – everything that I have made from it has been repeated, and the instructions are clear enough that they always look pretty.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a happy new year to all.

Mittens in Beijing

I was planning to be an excellent organised mother before we went to Beijing, and organised yarn and a pattern for mittens for the girls.  There is no good reason for my failure to even commence knitting said mittens  – but they just didn’t happen.  In a fit of desperation, the day before we left I bought some super cheap acrylic/polyester gloves from H&M.  These had the advantage of being machine washable, but the very significant disadvantage of not being very warm. Given that it had been -5 degrees when we had set out sightseeing that morning – they really needed something warmer.

Our first day in Beijing, we went to the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, and after the Summer Palace we took the girls to a small playground.  They were having a great time on the see-saw when I noticed a small stall selling gloves, mittens and hats.  There were two pairs of girls mittens, in colours that co-ordinated with their jackets, in what appears to be 90% wool, 5% mohair and 5% something. 

Given the location next to major tourist attraction on a bitterly cold day, I expected that some furious haggling would be required.  I managed to indicate my interest in the mittens to the seller, and he looked at me, found a calculator, and typed in the price – he wanted 10 yuan per pair.  That’s about US $1.30 per pair! I didn’t haggle.  Here in Hong Kong, there is not much demand for mittens, but for those of you who might be interested in selling them – their brand is Dragon Tiger, and they even have a web-site on the label.  I know I am spruiking the company (I promise that I am not connected to them) but the mittens are soft, warm, pretty, and the price! When I saw them, I couldn’t believe my luck – its not often that the shopping fairy visits me. I feel like my failure to knit mittens was justified after all.

The next day, we drove out to the Ming Tombs en route to the Great Wall.  I finally got an action shot of my husband’s striped Noro Scarf.  As you might notice he was getting a lot of skin contact from it, so I’m glad that I bothered to buy the Cashmere Island.

Yarn shopping in Beijing

Prior to the trip to Beijing, I asked Maryann for some yarn store recommendations – she replied (through Ravelry) with a list of 9 stores, but I only got to visit one while I was there. After going to the Great Wall, I asked our guide to drop me off at Wan Sha Jin Dian. For anyone who is interested in visiting, its at Ground Floor, No 14-2, Deng Si Kou Da Jie. Dong Cheng District (and for a Beijing taxi diver, print out 万纱经典纺织品 – 北京市东城区灯市口大街１４- ２号 Tel: 65127090).  I walked back to the hotel (the Hyatt) from there, and it took me about 15 minutes. 

 

 Its an Aladdin’s cave of yarn, with yarn stacked on every available surface.  Some is in hanks, some wound into balls, and some is on cones.

All the prices that you can see are per kilo (at 7.8 renminbi per US$1), and the yarn was weighed and I was told the price using a calculator.  The staff spoke almost no english, and I can not read Chinese, so I was a bit in the dark about the qualities of some of the yarn that I bought, but the prices were fantastic.

 

I think that all of the yarns I got were 100% natural fibres (with some cashmere thrown in the blend), and in total I spent about $20 US. There is 400 grams of the grey laceweight (which seems to be 95% wool, 5% cashmere), nearly 500 grams of the tweedy double knitting yarn (feels like merino) and 150 grams of the pink laceweight (maybe wool/silk?).

All in all,  an excellent haul.  I would have participated in lots more yarn adventures, but had a sick child, and a heavy cold myself.  The sub zero temperatures also made more random wandering less attractive. Next time I go, I plan to take a translation machine, so that I can investigate the yarns more.  There seems to be a thriving yarn culture in Beijing!