Japanese Boucle & the Heart Scarf

A dear friend of mine has just been diagnosed with breast cancer, proving once again that life is a bloody bitch at times. I'm making her a Heart Scarf (from Knitty's 2004 Breast Cancer Awareness mini-issue) using blue-green-aqua bouclé which was in my stash (as I can't afford to buy anything right now). I couldn't read the label though, as it's Japanese...

So I sent it off to a friend who can translate this stuff, and she said it's 100% acrylic, called "Off time Alicia" (go figure!), for needles 9 to 11; Standard guage: 13-14 stitches, 22-24 rows to 10 cm.

The care instructions read Hand wash, don't bleach, don't iron, dry clean, the twisting image has "weak" written on it, and the jumper image has "flat" written on it. Probably don't wring, and dry flat is my guess.

The lace heart pattern won't be very obvious in the bouclé, but they'll sort of be stealth hearts... I only wish I could do more, and make the bad things all go away :(

Here's the scarf so far... can you see the hearts?

On Target

Here's Target Beanie #1 — I've used a twisted rib (all knit stitches are knit through the back of the stitch, which gives a more defined rib). Hubby's got a 24" head, so I cast on 114 stitches, but this was really a bit big. Each colour ring is only 9 rows, and the whole beanie is a bit short, so the design needs a bit of work.

I will do Version 2 soon, on 100 stitches, 10 rows per colour, and adding a black ring in the middle of the white, and a white ring in the middle of the black (they delineate the 1 & 2, and 3 & 4 scoring rings respectively - ones you don't want to shoot ;)

Once I'm happy with the pattern, I'll write it up here.

Tea Party Time

It was my dotter's 15th birthday this weekend, and she chose to have a fancy tea party with her yarn sisters - all of whom are older than her. We cooked lots of yummy things - the sort of treats we don't normally have, like bleu cheese filo pastries, coffee cream chocolates, cucumber sandwiches, orange poppyseed shortbreads, and smoked salmon on pumpernickel....

I dusted off my collection of old china cups, dug out the lace tablecloth and doilies, and we polished the silver... it was a lovely afternoon, with excellent company, knitting much in abundance, and delicious fibre gifts (many thanks, ladies). There's really something to be said for a proper afternoon tea with one's women friends :) I'm only sorry we couldn't invite more of our 'yarn sisters' - we clearly need to do this more often!



On the knitting front, the lurid green scarf is a little further on, hubby's Jet Jumper now has a front, and the sleeves have been started (both at the same time), and the cuff for the second Fibonacci sock is nearly finished.