The Red Scarf Project

About a month ago, my mother discovered this great charity knitting project, the Red Scarf Project, which provides care packages and (you guessed it) red scarves for college students from foster care.  (The project is an offshoot of Foster Care to Success, an organization which provides assistance to former foster care children, including college scholarships).  As a college student, I remember how great it was to get care packages from home, and can only imagine how important these care packages are to students who have little or no family support.  Each knitter may send up to 5 scarves (at the appropriate collection time; check their website for specific details) and Mom has already finished 3!

This led to the following phone call:
"ring ring"
Me: "What's up?"
Mom: "Do you want to knit some scarves for the Red Scarf Project?"
Me: "Sure, I guess, if I have time."
Mom: "Oh good, I'm on my way back from the yarn store; I bought you a bunch of red yarn to get started!  Come get it later today!"
Me: "...okay.."
Later that day... she hands me a bag with 7 skeins of various yarns.
(I have lots of phone conversations with her that involve her calling to ask the one question that just occurred to her).

Grandpa Scarf

After looking around at several scarf patterns (there are some great suggested scarf patterns on the Red Scarf Project Ravelry group page) I found this one up for testing.  It features a braid cable border, and a rather intense (if you haven't worked cables before) cable in a cable center panel.  The pattern is entirely written out, which I found slightly irritating; it was my fault though, for signing up for a knit test marked "written out pattern" only.  (I will now take two seconds to voice my profound love of charted patterns, especially for cabling, because you can visualize where each cable is supposed to go while knitting.  This prevents the I-cabled-the-wrong-way-and-just-noticed-after-knitting-40-more-rows-issue from occurring.  Which may have occurred when I was knitting this scarf. Gold stars to anyone who can point out which center cable repeat I screwed up!   I took the mistake as a from the universe that the scarf was not destined to be perfect and have ignored it since it's discovery.  But my point is, I like charts).

Apart from this, the design is really lovely; there's a cute little XO (hugs and kisses!) cable, hidden in the last bit of the braid cable edging.  I love that it's a secret message to your scarf recipient!  I do recommend dropping down a needle size, as the scarf has the potential to be very wide.  (It's the kind of scarf you wear outside when it is -40 degrees).  The original pattern calls for size 8 needles; I used size 6's and got 7.5 inches across.

I used 4 skeins of Lion Brand's Vanna's Choice yarn in cranberry for the scarf.  Vanna's Choice has never been one of my favorite yarns, because it is acrylic and tends to fuzz with use.  It holds up better than Wool-Ease, though, and fit the parameters of the Red Scarf Project people just fine.  If I was going to knit the scarf again for someone special (and not as a RSP) I might consider using something like Cascade 220 or KnitPicks' Wool of the Andes, which would show off the cables beautifully.

As for the Red Scarf Project, I'll probably knit a few more scarves this year, probably with more simple patterns.  What would you knit for the project?

Test Knitting Adventures, Part 3

And we're back, again, with one more test knitting adventure!

Most of the test knitting opportunities available on Ravelry offer knitters a free working pattern in exchange for feedback, but if you look hard enough (and respond quickly) there are some tests which include yarn support!  I was lucky enough to find such a test for Interlacements Yarns, a small fiber arts company based out of Wisconsin specializing in hand-dyed yarns and rovings.  Tracey, (one of the owners) was wonderful to work with!


Sweet Feet

I was sent two skeins of Sweet Feet, a merino/Tussah silk blend sock yarn in two colorways; Mountain Jewel (blues, greens and purple) and Grape Harvest (purples and green).  Tussah silk, for those of you who were wondering (I was) is cultivated from wild silk worms living in tropical environs.  The silk they produce is brown or beige and is generally more resilient than the white silk produced by domestic silk worms.

The yarn itself is wonderfully soft to wear or knit, with a lovely silk sheen, but it can be a bit splitty if you are not careful.  However, the yarn really stands out in terms of colors.  All the colorways available feature rich, vibrant colors (more so in real life than on the computer) perfect for luxurious socks, shawls, mitts, etc.  (Check the Ravelry test group here for more pics of the colorways).

The sock pattern which I tested (not yet available for purchase) was a fairly basic cuff down sock with a simple picot edging for the cuff, and flaps sewn to the sides of the sock, through which a leather lace can be drawn to tighten the sock up around the ankle.  The simplicity of the pattern allows the beautiful colors of the yarn to really shine, but I did run out of yarn before completion of the flaps.  Although, this could have been because I was knitting a size 9 pair of women's socks, which felt like the larges pair of socks ever knitted while I was working on them!  Any smaller size sock would probably be finished without fault.