Letters
Rolling in the Stripes: Summer Scarf 2016
Dear Ann,
After the triumphant finish to my Fort Tryon Wrap, I was casting about for my next take-along knitting project. I was also yearning, as always, for The Perfect Summer Scarf. Summer scarves are tricky. You want something cotton or linen or otherwise plant-fiberish. Or at least I do. I know many people who wear lightweight wool or cashmere in air-conditioned environments in summer, but I have never been one of them. In summer I cannot take the risk of animal fiber against potentially sweaty skin. Nope nope nope. Ew ew ew.
It’s been hard to find the right scarf. You can’t take any old scarf or wrap that was designed with wool in mind and just knit it up in linen or cotton. I know, because I’ve tried. Some patterns take to the plant fibers and some don’t. So I’ve kept my eyes peeled, and hoped that when my Summer Scarf 2016 came along, my inner voice would whisper at me and I’d know that it was The One.
The inner voice took a while. Julia Farwell-Clay‘s Metronome crescent shawl passed before my eyes several times. I liked it from the first, because: (1) asymmetrical graphics and (2) stripes. In May, I saw it at TNNA, being worn by Julia herself. I liked it even more, and may have been kind of loudly excited about it when we ran into Julia on the street that time, but still, it didn’t dawn until last week that THIS IS MY SUMMER SCARF RIGHT HERE.
The original version of Metronome is knitted in Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light, a lovely light mixture of wool and alpaca. I am often literal in my thinking, and Ultra Alpaca Light is, to me, strictly a cold-weather yarn. Blinded by alpaca, I didn’t see the summer in this scarf until I found myself wanting to knit something stripy to try out Berroco Indigo, a cotton yarn that is made from 100% recycled fibers. EUREKA! MR. METRONOME COME HERE I WANT TO SEE YOU.
On Sunday morning I cast on Metronome. It’s good fun to knit. There’s the garter stitch, which is a rollicking good time in almost any form. (Personal definitions of “rollicking” and “good time.”) But Metronome is garter stitch with a fun twist: intarsia. I know: I said “intarsia” and “fun” in the same sentence. Julia has schemed up a way of doing intarsia that does not involve using separate lengths of the colors, or bobbins, or any of that mess. Tangle factor: zero. Two balls of yarn and no nonsense. It’s so simple, but thinking of it required the kind of inventive spatial reasoning that got Matt Damon home in The Martian. (Spoiler: The Martian did not involve slipping stitches.) Six stripes in, I still have to look back at the pattern when it’s time for a new stripe, but I’m well in the groove at this point. It’s almost second nature. It’s fun to do something so dang clever, especially if I would never have thought of it myself. Well done, Julia, you brainiac.
(Notice what’s not in this picture? Dangling ends, that’s what. Neat as a pin. Sorcery!)
I’m loving the Berroco Indigo, too. I’m knitting it on the suggested size needle, US 7, which I wouldn’t ordinarily do. Because I’m a loose knitter, the US 7s are yielding a fabric that is more open than I’d want if I were making a sweater or blanket, but is perfect for the beachy scarf I have in mind. It’s smooth and soft, with a pronounced slink. No blue coming off on my hands as with that other denim-style yarn I may have written about elsewhere on this blog. (Rowan Denim: you are crispy as all heck but I can’t quit you.)
I’m going to knit stripes until I run out of the dark blue (“Denim”) and off-white (“Cut-Offs”), and then finish with a big stripe of tweedy blue and gray (“Overall”). (Yes, I chose the colors for their names as much as anything.) It’s going fast. I may have time to knit another one before summer is gone.
Love,
Kay
Thanks Kay! I love this scarf – it’s so modern and fresh looking, and the right size for now and for winter. I like the ones done in the bright colors.
I am not a big fan of intarsia, but I am intrigued by this new method. I might have to give this pattern a try just to see how it’s worked!
No bobbles, no intarsia. But this I will try because I trust you. And I like to support designers that do something inventive. And there’s a coupon! Is there an app that looks like one of those coupon clipper’s organizer? Don’t you love the Indigo? I made a bag with it for a soon-to-be-published book and really liked it. Off to use my coupon.
I’m currently knitting a summer cardigan with that Berroco Indigo yarn. It’s pretty marvelous — especially for cotton. Now I wish I had more to knit up a summer scarf, too!
Speaking of dangling ends, when does the Big Floral Damask Thing get out of the “time out” corner?
Great choice for a summer scarf!
I am loving the Berroco Indigo as well. It’s the Churchmouse featured fav 20% off yarn this summer, although their color selection is dwindling. I’ve started on their block stitch baby blanket in the Cut-Offs color. My gauge is loose like yours so I had to go down to a size 5 needle for the squares to look right.
I was thinking it would make a fab baby blanket!
Beautiful so far! Thanks for the coupon code, I’ve been admiring this pattern, so I bought it! I also really like her Albers pullover which also seems to do a clever thing with stripes. I have the yarn for that one at home already. 🙂
I found some gorgeous purple linen (at least I’m pretty sure it’s linen) at the Eileen Fisher Lab Store. Ten bucks!
Still trying to pick a pattern!
I’m impressed!So tidy and no ends! I’m in the process of knitting a giant torso-sized tube of garter stitch in various cottony stripes at the moment, and even the very few dangling ends (the stripes are very very wide, I did think that part through) have me feeling a little anxious. So much so, that my first effort to type that word came out as “anxipus” which I now realize is actually a better word because it conveys both my emotional state and the expression on my face.
What a great scarf! What an interesting pattern! And I just stumbled across a mention of the Berroco Indigo and was intrigued, so thanks for the review!
I also get into the search for “The Perfect Summer Scarf” pattern and yarn along about May every year. I picked a good striped shawl pattern and went with gray linen for one stripe and MadTosh Light wool in Birch for the other because I live where’s the weather is usually brisk and almost never sweat-inducing. It turned out OK, but was not the perfect scarf for me, so I gave it away. I’m currently working on the 2016 Scarf Two, (diferent pattern and yarns) with high hopes!
Garter stitch is not my idea of a rollicking good time, but I am so intrigued at this pattern that I am going to buy it just to figure out how it’s done!
Totally off-topic but I had to share my knitterly pride at this news: http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/07/new-words-july-2016/
“Tink” is now in the Oxford Dictionary! It feels like recognition.
I’m definitely knitting this, I just don’t know when. My needles are a bit backed up at the moment 🙂
I do wish I had watched the movie I purchased tonight (The Martian) before I read the blog. I know, I know, everyone else in the world has already seen but me. How I managed to avoid spoilers this long is anyone’s guess.
I love this pattern, I love Julia’s designs in general, and I almost always choose color ways for their names–twins separated at birth? Oh yeah and I also love the way you write, it keeps me clicking through your update emails every time (except this one; I was distracted the day it was published). Knit on!
Yes! to knitting during the convention(s). Last night my husband said, “You miss some good TV by watching it that way.” I thought, “you miss some good knitting watching it your way.”
I’ve had this in my queue for a while but your discussion of yarns clicked and I Know of three perfect combinations in my stash. I used the coupon and now I just have to make room for this between all my other knitting.