Cherry Blossom Crochet Scarf

 My mother used to make me a lot of cute outfits when I was young.  I was always big fan on her creations and I still am.  I guess she likes all the feminine stuff - lace, flower, and frills! 

 One day, my father asked me if I was interested in going to a music concert with him.  I really wanted to go with him, and I asked my mom to make me a nice outfit for the special occasion.  I think I was just turned to 4 years old.  I asked her if she could make a pants suits!  I was not big on skirt at that time.  Anyway, she said "OK!" and she immediately started working on it.  I don't know how many days took for her to finish my pants suits, but they were very pleasing to my eyes. On the shoulder, there was frills .  There were frills on the cuffs of pants, too! In the end ... I was more proud of my suits than going to the concert! 

I believe creating cute stuff is really good for my soul.  Looking at lovely creations gives me so much energy to go though real life's toughness.  Winter coldness - this is one of the toughness of life - I wanted to see something that gives me warmth - Spring Warmth.  I turned the pages of my old patterns - mostly my mom's hand down - and I found this cute flower pattern.  I needed to make something with the pattern.  So, I tested a few yarn to decide what kind of yarn was good to make a cute spring scarf.  I picked size 2 pink ombre yarn.  The crochet hook size was E/4.  Here is the picture!   I just listed this scarf on my Etsy store, Kay Clair Goodies.  I would like to try making this scarf with other colors soon!

 

Bulky Yarn 1 ball project!

    I finished my new knitting pattern today!  It is a PDF pattern for mittens - bulky weight yarn project.  Bulky, chunky and jumbo size yarns are very popular recently.  There even is a yarn called Mega size yarn!   I don't have any plan to use mega size yarn right now, but I needed to use size 5 - bulky weight yarn from my MEGA amount of yarn stash!  I usually use this size of yarn to make amigurumi bunny, however, I hadn't used them for something wearable before. 
   It is still cold outside.  When I take my child to his school in the morning, I often forget to put on my gloves.  It is a very short walk - only 2 minutes! - but I always regret that I didn't put on my gloves.   So it was easy for me to come up my new project idea!  Plus, I thought it should be finished quickly to wear them tomorrow!  I listed my PDF pattern on my Etsy shop today.  Take a look at it when you have a chance! 

Boucle Yarn Project completed!

    My boucle yarn project has done today!  Simple garter stitch shows the color and feature of the yarn very well!  Here is the picture!  Hmmm....what is the good name for this scarf?  From the color way....I decided to call this finished work - Monet Garden Scarf!    If you are interested in making this scarf, please check my previous post. What stitch is the best for strong character yarn?  I enjoy making this scarf while I was watching TV!  (It is hard to watch TV when I am working on 'lace' pattern - If I do that, I am sure I would drop many stitches!)  After finishing my project, I thought this basic knitting stitch - garter stitch - worked perfect to help showing the yarn character the best. It will be good to go back to the basic next time when I encounter next strong personality yarn. 

Doesn't it look like Monet color?

What stitch is the best for strong character yarn?

   I dug up one of my yarns from the bottom of a container a couple days ago.  I really like the color but it was really hard for me to decide what to knit with it.  So, it was in my yarn container a few years.  This type of novelty yarn is called 'boucle' yarn.  This beautiful yarn is originally from ICE (Yarn Paradise in Turkey).  I think this yarn line is already not made anymore. (This is sad!  I wanted to get other colors!)  I was staring at the yarn ball for a while and waited for an idea came up -for what to make with it.  This yarn has a strong character.  Too strong....It may not good to make cable pattern - pattern would be hidden under this colors.  I thought and thought....and finally I came to a conclusion.  Strong/complicated character yarn needs simple stitches.  My choice of stitch is garter stitch.  It is a reversible look stitch.  I decided to make a cowl with this yarn!  My pattern is as follows.  If you have a this kind of boucle yarn (this yarn has skinny part and thicker part),  try this pattern to consume your yarn stash.  I thought simple stitches worked great to make the yarn feature stand out. 

Needle : Size us10 (6mm) circular needle - 32 inches of length
Yarn : Boucle type yarn 2 balls (about 440 m)
1 stitch marker

Cast on 200.  Place stitch marker on the right-hand needle, and join to work in circle. 
Row 1 : Knit.
Row 2 : Purl.
Repeat Row 1 and 2 in turn. 

Keep working until you get 10 inches before binding off.