Shades of a scarf

#a month of moments
26. comfy
I love this scarf. It's like a comfy warm hug around my neck.

This is a very delayed post. I've had all the bits for this floating around for literally months. I finished the scarf in October last year. The draft blog post has been kicking around since November last year but the right words were being elusive. I have the month of moments prompt to thank for getting me off my butt and making me finish it.

At the end of July 2012, my Mum, my Aunty and myself went to The Melbourne Craft & Quilt Fair at Melbourne’s Convention & Exhibition Centre or Jeff's Shed as it is affectionately known by Melbournians. I love craft shows! (The advertising banner below has it spot on). I try to get to at least one each year. It's such fun to immerse myself in a creative world for a whole day. I thoroughly just enjoy looking and being inspired by others' awesomeness and rarely buy much. (Except books and they don't really count do they?)

This time around both my Aunty and I bought a scarf kit from Jane Slicer-Smith at Signatur Handknits. Jane's inventive knitting kits have been around on the Australian craft scene for at least 20 years or so, but I noticed this year she got to appear at Vogue Knitting Live in New York. Lucky her. I'm jealous.

It was both the shape and the colours that got me in. Then I fondled the wool and I was thoroughly hooked. It was so soft and snugly. The wool is called Tonalita - Italian for Shades. (You could also translate it as hues. On the other hand Tonalita is also the name for a particular type of igneous rock found in the Italian Alps).

Pattern: The Wave Length Scarf is created working short rows - or incomplete rows. The pattern has two width options: narrow and wide. I made the narrower 17 stitch scarf.

Yarn: Trendsetter Tonalita yarn made in Italy. The colour I used is called Violet Eyes. It is a 52% Wool, 48% Acrylic blend and despite being a single twist ply is tougher than it looks. This yarn is dyed as an un-spun, raw fiber & then spun into some wonderful color combos. I used two balls.

Needles: 8mm. I was extremely dubious at this. 8mm with 8ply!??? I said. And I had to start it three times 'cos it seemed so wrong to be knitting on such large needles. But I'm glad I persevered. The slightly open stitch structure makes it warm and it drapes beautifully at the same time. But it still felt like knitting on broomsticks!


This was great travel knitting. Here's me knitting it on the train on the way to another craft show in early October with my son and little sister (her birthday present). In fact, in my photo file on my computer, this scarf's picture folder is labelled as "The Craft Show Scarf".

Yes, I know I am headless. My son, who took this, says that the expression on my face when I am concentrating on my knitting is anything but pretty.

I love this scarf. You can almost see how fuzzy and warm it is here.

I'm so glad it wasn't this sort of Tonalita. Not comfy at all!