"Shades of the Rainbow" - a scarf for Syrina

I just started this on Tuesday evening, and finished it last night. All I had to do today was weave in the ends.

The scarf in its entirety

A close-up... but fuzzier than I would have liked.

Syrina with her new scarf!!!

You'll have to excuse the way Syrina's looking in the picture. She's not been feeling well lately. She's stayed home from school for the past 2 days, and I have a sneaking feeling that she'll be staying home again tomorrow too. I was lucky I got her to sit still with the scarf on and look in my general direction to get the picture in the first place.

I hadn't actually planned this particular project. It all came from Syrina "stealing" a scarf from the hat/scarf/glove box in the front hallway on Tuesday morning. It was one of my scarves (I have several). I asked her if she'd like to borrow it for the day, and she nodded yes at me. As Syrina is severely autistic and completely non-verbal, a nod is a BIG deal when it comes to communication. It isn't the first time I've gotten a nod (or a shake, for that matter) when I've asked her a question, but simply asking a question doesn't necessarily mean that I'll GET a nod or a shake. So when she so obviously wanted to borrow it, I couldn't NOT let her.

That evening, when I was cleaning up after the kids having dinner and such, I found it on the floor of her bedroom. I picked it up to put it away, and the lightbulb went off over my head. "You really like this scarf, don't you, Syrina? Would you rather have one like this instead of a furry scarf?" (I asked this because I had plans to make her a furry scarf, because she'd seen me making her sisters' and seemed to like it.) I got ANOTHER nod - even more emphatic this time. "I can make you one if you want. Would you like that?" Yet another emphatic nod.

So I grabbed a few balls of yarn out of my stash to try and figure out what kind of color or color scheme she liked, but to be honest, she looked like she couldn't care less. What she really likes are the patterns and the textures of the stitches. I don't think she CARED what color it was.

So I got the idea to make a rainbow scarf. But seeing as I had 2 shades of pink, 2 of green, and 3 of blue, I figured I'd make it with every shade of every color I had. The one color in the rainbow I didn't have was orange, but rather than go out and buy a skein of orange just to make the scarf, I figured I'd just leave it out. Considering all the other colors I already had, I didn't think it would make a difference.

I really thought I would have it finished all in one night, but it took me 2 days. However, seeing as she ended up staying home from school and didn't really need to wear it anyway, it was just as well.

I'm thinking I might add something to it, though. It seemed almost TOO plain. I asked for suggestions over at the 'ville, and somebody suggested I do curly fringe. I did something like it for an amigurumi I did last year (if you search through the archives I'm sure you'll find it, because I posted it), but I just didn't think of it when I was looking at the scarf trying to figure out what to do. I'm seriously leaning towards doing that. I may change my mind, of course, but ya never know. :D

Kn*tted Fun Fur Scarf

I just finished this one last night. Actually, I only just STARTED it on Friday night... so it was only a 24-hour project (or thereabouts). It's the 3rd one I've made with the same type and color of fun fur, but this one has turned out the best. Lexi's has stretched out into a NOODLE... and Chloe promptly lost hers at school the first time she wore it! *grrrr!!!*

This one was made on 8 mm needles using one strand of fun fur and one strand of plain white acrylic (dk weight) held together. You can't even see the white acrylic, but it gives it a lot more structure - not to mention thickness.

As you can see in the second picture, she absolutely loves it. :)

I still have one more that I have to make, for Syrina. But if I do it the same way I made this one, it should work up really quickly.

It's really good for a quick project, and gives me a sense of accomplishment. Which is a really good thing, when you consider the other WiPs I have going at the moment seem to be taking for-freaking-ever!!!

Blasts From the Past and Updates

This top one, obviously, is a poncho. It's one I made for my now 9-year old daughter, Caitlin. These are the colors she specifically asked for, but it was my idea to edge it in fun fur. It turned out a bit bigger than I'd thought it would - it fits ME!!! - so I threaded some elastic through the neckhole, and tied it off. When she's wearing it, you can't even see the elastic, so nobody knows the difference! :)

The second one is the baby blanket I crocheted for my youngest, about 4 years ago. Actually, it was meant for my nephew - only everybody thought he was going to be a niece. Even his mother - my sister - thought so. I hadn't made Chloe one at first, because she was born at the end of May. The end of May in Illinois is VERY warm. The last thing she was going to need was a crocheted blanket! So I made this later that year, but when my sister actually HAD the baby and realized it was a boy, I figured Chloe could have this one. (I made another one very similar to this one - but in blue and white - for my nephew).

The second picture is simply a close-up of the stitches on the baby

blanket.

And this last picture is my progress so far on my scarf that I'm making with the "oh-my-gosh-I-love-this-stuff-it's-so-soft" yarn. :) I've had to frog it 3 times, but I like how it's finally turning out.

I should have it completely finished in a day or two, and I'll definitely be posting pictures then! :)

I LOVE my SIL!!

Lookie what she brought me!!!!

The picture just does NOT do this stuff justice. I call the yarn on the right the oh-my-gosh-I-love-this-stuff-it's-so-soft yarn. I can't put into words just HOW soft this stuff is!!!

She picked it up from work. She's the Asst. Mgr. for a soft furnishings store, and they were selling kits for knitting a pair of slippers - complete kits. Needles, yarn, the whole "kit & caboodle," so to speak. Well, some lady brought this stuff in, saying she'd bought one of the kits and all it had in it was the yarn. *Yeah, right.* She's the one responsible for making sure that all the stock on the shelves is up-to-date and in good condition. She knows for a fact that there weren't any incomplete kits. But "the customer is always right".... so they had to "write off" this yarn. And since they had to do that anyway... she brought it to me!!!!

I'm lucky, I am. :)

I think I'm going to make a scarf out of it. I'm going to do the body of the scarf in the oh-my-gosh-I-love-this-stuff-it's-so-soft yarn, and then do the ends in the fun fur. I had thought of doing both together... but that would take away from the softness of the yarn itself, and I don't want to do that. It's too gorgeous for that.

Add another WiP to the list!!!