Brand new off the hook and needles!

Let's see...all the vacuuming and sweeping is done, the sun came out and I have some time before work ='s time to play around on my blog!

I admit that I am hooked on crocheting curly whirly scarves. I feel very satisfied when I am making one. Very at peace and calm. The horrible thing is after completing each CW I feel the urge to start another only a few days later. I've got to get these crocheting urges under control. I don't have the yarn budget to support it.

Desire is the root of suffering.

Well, I finished this Curly Whirly about a week ago so as you can imagine, I am jonesing right now. It's for a special friend who was supposed to visit me last week on a whirlwind visit through the US. We've been neighbors, roommates and friends but now she lives abroad. She's a fabulous gal who has always has kept our friendship close to her heart. In fact, she thinks about me when she travels to places like llama farms where they are selling oh-so-soft handspun yarn and suprises me later with it. So this scarf was made partly out of some yarn that she gifted me with a while ago. She's also a gal that loves vintage and pink. So I thought the combo of brown and pink would satisfy those aspects of her taste, especially with the shell edging in pink. And not to mention she's hip and spiral scarves are the thing (or at least I keep telling myself that because I want to keep making them).

I ran into a slight problem with one of the yarns, though. I didn't think about mixing the Baby Ull with the alpaca and llama. Duh! It's superwash, so when I washed it the edging expanded out of shape all over the place. I put it in the dryer for a while and fortunately that took care of most of the yuck without damaging the other yarns, but geeze, talk about brain dead fiber choices. (the dryer also made the scarf uber twirly. I had to undo it is was so extreme. Do you think that's how it got to be 8 feet long!!!!!!).

Michelles's Vintage Inspired Twirly

• Notions: Size L crochet hook, tapestry needle


• Yarn: handspun llama from somewhere in the Negev desert, natural cream colored Suri Merino by Plymouth Yarn, bright pink Baby Ull


• Stitches: Single Crochet and Single Crochet Shells.

I've also finished a belated Christmas gift recently. It's the evah-so-populah Irish Hiking Scarf brought to us from the folks at Hello Yarn.

This scarf is a gift for my brother in NH. I think he'll like it. The pattern is classic and the knit fabric is sooooft!

• Pattern: Irish Hiking Scarf by Hello Yarn


• Needle: US10


• Yarn: Berroco Pleasure (3 skeins in 8631)


• Notes: If I were doing this scarf over I would increase the number of rows between cable crosses. 7 is fine for worsted or sport weight yarn, but for bulky or heavy worsted it made the fabric too scrunched up and the scarf shorter than it should have been. I would go up to 9 rows and cable on the 10th. I also think I should have gone up to size 10.5 or 11 needles. The fabric is still spacious with room for the blooming of the yarn, but I think it would have been better to have gone bigger.