I am currently excited and infatuated with stripes in scarves. I do like self-striping yarns, but I want to be able to control the stripes. Though scarves are on the menu for this year there are still small bits of yarn remaining that will make some interesting stripes. When I first made some scarves years ago, I just used an eight-ounce skein of Red Heart or some other yarn and that was enough to make a scarf. I generally used eight ounces as my rule of thumb for making a scarf, which worked if I was doing something that wasn’t a “yarn-eating” stitch pattern – shells, basic single, half or double crochet. Doing something more elaborate such as a wider or longer scarf meant that I needed more yarn. Scarves done in front or back posts take more yarn.
When yarns were in eight-ounce skeins that was convenient but as I moved into other brands or different yarns I needed more. Though I tend to use acrylic or wool for scarves, I may need to buy more than just eight ounces. What to do with all the remaining yarn – put them together and make stripes. Every few years I tend to gather all my odd balls and make a scrapghan. This year’s version of that is going to be scarves with stripes.
Right now, I have two scarves that I am making with vertical stripes – so working nine or ten horizontal rows of 224 chains to make vertical stripes. One was planned with two yarns in mind – a chocolate brown yarn that I bought to do with a wool that I bought in a thrift store. The other is using leftover yarn from a scarf combined with gray. The odd balls are still going into my yarn bowl for future use, but when the yarn is more than half a skein, I earmark it for several rows of stripes. Two to three ounces of worsted or aran weight yarn (or 100 yards or more) can make a nice wide stripe or a couple of colors can be used to make a few stripes of color. Larger balls of remaining yarn are better suited for stripes in scarves or afghans rather than the pops of color in a scrapghan.
The gray yarn is ready and waiting for lots of stripes. Since I’m making the hats in the same red yarn and can make at least two, maybe three hats from a skein or just join another skein and keep going. It’s not likely that I’ll use that red in a striped scarf, but red may make a cameo appearance.
I’m definitely infatuated with stripes for now, especially I am able to control the pattern, make unique scarves and use up yarn.
Are you currently smitten with certain patterns, colors, yarns or motifs? Let me know…
