Lovely Feather and Fan Scarf
I attended a spinning and fiber prep workshop with Judy Jull at Elza M. Studios. She has a beautiful studio on her property overlooking Sampson Lake, in Starke, Florida. It was a perfectly rainy and dreary day and we all enjoyed ourselves. I have spun pounds of fiber before this workshop, but there’s always something to learn and I lack experience in fiber preparation. They prepared a nice long stretch of top for us to take home and practice on and I decided I had to make something with it and not just practice spinning and toss it in the basket already full of yarn; so this scarf is born.
I spun it on the fine side, to get the most yardage out of it, and used the Navajo Chain Plying technique so I would have complete control over my colorways. It’s nice Merino wool top and they did such a nice job dying it, I wanted to keep the integrity of colorway and not change it’s characteristic look.
Then the pattern, I have only 175 Yards to work with, so a scarf it must be (because I have enough bags), a Merino should feel good next to the skin. Nothing too complicated so the color is showcased first and found an easy Feather and Fan pattern. I couldn’t say exactly where I found it, as it was EVERYWHERE. Once it came off the needles, washed and blocked; I can say I’m happy with it. I do wish I had twice the wool, I think the pattern would look better if there were a repeat of the pattern stitches making it wider, but I used almost all the fiber I had.
Here’s the pattern if you find yourself with a length of lovely space dyed Merino wool:
I have two ways to measure my yarn: WPI and also by folding the yarn in half running it through a hole on a knitting needle gauge. I got 20 W.P.I. (could have crammed more in, but why?), and the folded yarn fit nicely through the size 3 (3.25mm), so I could have used size 3 needles, but I wanted it to be loose and airy, and went with size 5 (3.75mm) needles.
With a stretchy cast on, cast on 24
Knit two rows then repeat the following four rows until you reach your desired length.
- K3, (k2tog) 3 times, (k1 yo) 6 times, (k2tog) 3 times, k3
- K3, slip 1, k to end of row
- K3, slip 1, k to end of row
- K3, slip 1, P17, K3
After reaching your desired length, end after two rows of Knit, use a stretchy Bind Off, like the one described below:
K2tog through the back, move stitch back to Left Needle, K2Tog through the back, move stitch back to left needle, continue until done, run end through loop and weave in. Wash, Block and Enjoy.
I love to weave, spin, knit, crochet, do several forms of needlework and lace-making. I even work with silver, gemstones and beads too.
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