Skinny Irish Hiking Scarf

Once upon a time, in the far away town of Sacile, Italy, a brand-new knitter was born. After her first foray into knitting, expanding on her years and years of yarn experience with crochet, she joined a social networking site for yarn crafters called Ravelry. While accessing this mystical portal to all things full of yarn-y goodness, she came upon a magnificent and talented group of knitters that participated in a Harry Potter-themed knitting swap. While her husband was far off assisting in the slaying of distant foes, this group became her support system and close friends.

When one of them suggested starting a new kind of swap, one that passed along a piece of knitting for all involved to participate in and each end up with their own scarf worked on by hands from around the world, the neophyte knitter was overcome with excitement and immediately set to searching out the perfect pattern to use.

To her dismay, she was unable to find one that catered to her tastes and desires....thus, the Skinny Irish Hiking Scarf was born.

With needles clicking and quill scribbling, she made notes, alterations and ultimately, the scarf she envisioned so clearly in her mind.

She wrote out the pattern with care and sent the written instructions and beginnings of a community project around the world.

About a year later, it came back home to her, waiting to be finished off and worn with pride, and now that the written pattern has recently been uncovered from the depths of my castle's dungeons, I pass it along to you all...

Skinny Irish Hiking Scarf

Size 5.0mm/US8 knitting needles
 
Cable needle
 
Worsted weight yarn



 
C6F: slip 3 stitches to the cable needle and hold in front. Knit next 3 stitches, then knit 3 stitches off the cable needle.

 
CO 22 sts
 
Knit 4 rows

R1 (WS): Sl first st p-wise, K2, P2, K3, P6, K3, P2, K3
 
R2 (RS): Sl first st p-wise, K4, P3, K6, P3, K5
 
R3-6: Repeat rows 1 & 2
 
R7: Repeat row 1
 
R8: Sl first st p-wise, K4, P3, C6F, P3, K5

 
Repeat last 8 rows until desired length, ending with row 7.

 
Knit 4 rows.
 
Bind off.

The selling of projects resulting in use of this pattern is permitted, but please don't sell the pattern itself, and always provide the link/URL to the pattern where you sell it so others can enjoy crafting as well!

Summer time!

Wow! I have been incredibly busy! Ever since the field trip I chaperoned for Batman's class to the Butterfly Gardens in Luxembourg, I have been hopping!

On Memorial Day, we had the Songes up and had a cookout and I got to spend time with Kristin, hanging out in my craft room and dyeing yarn, along with just playing with yarn in general. :)

The following Monday, I got to join a bunch of the other Kindergarten parents and help with cutting out cardboard wings for the "Fly Away" ceremony we had for Batman's Kindergarten class. (The school doesn't do an actual Kindergarten graduation.) It was nice to chat with them and talk about travel and my love of Paris with them. :)

That Wednesday I went in and helped out Batman's teacher with the kids decorating their wings for said ceremony. They were so creative and fun!
That Friday was Field Day for the boys. Batman had a blast and participated in all the events with extra enthusiasm. Superman, however, was a different story. He was in a rotten mood and only would play in about half the events.

Superman bouncing on a ball

Batman under the parachute!

The Monday after that, I was supposed to be chaperoning Superman's class's nature walk, but due to rain, it was postponed a day.

He did well overall...especially considering how long the walk was! (He should not have worn a long-sleeved shirt! LOL) That afternoon, I took cupcakes in to Batman's class, since he has a summer birthday. That Wednesday was Batman's "Fly Away" from Kindergarten, and it was awesome to get to see all the kids and their parents getting together to celebrate all the kids had accomplished. I also had Batman give his teacher and teacher's aide their gifts, which I handmade for them.

The next day was the boys' last day of school. Between Wednesday and Thursday, Superman was able to give the gifts I hand knit for his teacher, in class aide, the counselor that has been working with him, and the Occupational Therapist he was seeing on a weekly basis.

That Saturday, Elphie came up with her boys and they stayed overnight. The following Tuesday, the boys and I came down to her house so that we could sign Batman and her two sons up for swim lessons! The boys and I ended up staying through Sunday and I had a few girls nights with Elphie and Kristin. :)

We went home for a couple days, but then came back down on Tuesday, as that was when the swim lessons began. And that brings us to today! Swim lessons got cancelled tonight due to lightening, but it should be back to swimming as normal tomorrow. :)

Traveling Scarf Hiatus

The scarves seem to come in waves instead of the ideal steady stream...then again, the APO system does absolutely nothing to amend that. In fact, i think it quite contributes to it! But either way, I'm overdue for pictures. :) Here is the last crocheted one I have, I believe. (I think it's Kimmikat's...):




And here's a picture of that lace that I really, really, really ended up loving beyond reason (though it's actually more of a blue and less of a purple, lol):



And I forget whose this was, but here's my section of the provided pattern (which I loved!):




And now it's back to waiting for the next batch...it doesn't seem to fail, no matter how often or fast they get sent to me, they show up 2 or 3 (per group) at once...oh well. We're coming to the end of it all!

Liking the Lace....

So I got to go to England to watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince a week ago (I can't believe a week has already gone by!), and it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am in love with the UK! Seriously! I could live there, happily!!! It is stunningly beautiful!!! I miss the moors something dreadful, and miss hearing English spoken around me even more, I think. But in this week of "recovering" of the fun of the weekend get-away, I have been working hard on the kit for my spoilee for the swap, and got two more scarves for Scarf Travels. The first one I got is to be done in lace weight, which I've never done before...I was super excited, had a blast picking out a pattern, and have enjoyed watching the pattern form under my fingers...I have noticed, however, that it takes an insanely longer amount of time to knit 5" of scarf in laceweight than in worsted. Definitely a lot longer than I expected. But the pattern I chose is beautiful (as is the story behind the designing of it!), and it will be well worth it in the end...I just have to get to that end...and quickly! I wanted my husband to send it out tomorrow when he goes to work, and I'm lucky if I'm halfway through it! LOL On the plus side: we got a working printer yesterday, so that means I can now print out patterns for when I take the boys to the park...I'd have taken the scarf with me to work on, but couldn't access the pattern (wireless Internet isn't all over the place, yet...LOL)...which means that about 5 hours were spent out of doors without the scarf. Le sigh. But it won't happen again! In fact, I'm getting off the computer right now to feed the kiddos dinner and then plug away at it some more! It's certainly taking me a lot longer than I thought, but at least it's going faster as I go! :)

Sneeze, sniffle, choke, cough, sputter

While those may sound like allergies (hmm, maybe it partially is...), but in reality, it's me dusting off an old project...my Hermione hat had a rough start, and then, as all other projects I have started for myself, got set aside for other projects. However, the Half-Blood Prince (in which movies this hat makes it's appearance) premiere is only weeks away...and the best part? I might get to go to England to watch it in the IMAX!!! I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally hope it works out! But, if it does, I can't go all that way for the movie and not have at least one piece of some costume! I have to show everyone else (that doesn't know I'm flying all the way from Italy just to see it) that I'm more than just a casual fan...LOL

However, two more scarves have been worked on and passed along, and I've got one more in my possession...I'm waiting on the yarn I ordered to come in first, though. Here's the section of the crochet scarf I've sent on. I couldn't get a good picture of it to show it off, but I intend to make an entire scarf with the pattern and share the pattern here. And I was so focused on trying to get a good picture of my section, I forgot to get a picture of Rebecca's scarf so far before I packed it up to go! LOL



Here is the section I did on Stacey's scarf, which is knitted:



I did a variation of the pattern I used on Jody's scarf, which I am working on making an entire scarf to share that pattern as well. And here is a picture of Stacey's scarf thus far:



I did about 6", I think, instead of five, because of how it fell with my cables. :) But now I'm off to work some more on my hat...I can't wait until it's completed!!!

Patterns, patterns, patterns...

You know, I've never really thought about how many different scarf patterns exist out there, until this scarf round robin group...I have learned that I choose patterns much like I shop; I browse and browse and browse, until something just jumps out at me, and 9 times of 10, it's perfect! And if it's not, then I tweak it a little, and voila, a new pattern is born! I really need to get to posting those patterns here, come to think of it. Especially the pattern I used for the red scarf I made a couple posts back, and the 5" I did on Jody's scarf. Well, now, I've done it again! I've got Rebecca's scarf, and I like the pattern of a hat I've made a few times, so I modified it to work for crocheting that's not in the round...I believe I'll share it! As soon as I'm done with adding it to the scarf, that is... ;)

Wrist Woes

Wow, things have been great, albeit slightly adventurous, around our house! We're getting a new (and I mean new...as in 2010 new) car sometime within 5-14 days, we got a futon (finally!) for the TV/computer room and got the husband a computer desk (which means his currant "desk," aka the card table, will be finding it;s permanent home in my crafting room...I'll be able to keep my sewing machine up and sew at will!!!) all within the last week! On the not-so-good side...we ran out of gasolio again, so we have no hot water...hopefully we'll get lucky and it'll be refilled within a couple days...maybe on Monday? But back to the positives...

The car we had was breaking left and right and driving me insane. I think my griping finally got to my husband, because he decided it was time for a new car! We're getting a 2010 Ford Escape! I'm so excited! I don't know what he plans on doing with our old car (which, by the way, is something like a '93 or '94 Chystler[?] Stratus), but he also is talking about getting a nice bicycle to ride to work Monday, Wednesday and Friday...which means I would actually have a car part of the week!!!!!! (We'll see how that pans out, though...)

I was excited beyond all belief at the futon (which I've been wanting for over a year now) and desk (YAY for the table going to my craft room! And yay for DH getting a nice desk!)...even more exciting was that he went to the warehouse and pick them up in a timely manner! So the night before last, I was helping him carry the boxes in from the car...I'm not used to heavy lifting. I am a stay-at-home mom. I change stinky butts, I wash dishes, every now and again I'll rearrange furniture, but 90% of that is simply pushing things across the floor. The heaviest things I lift in a normal day are my boys, the heavier of which is 39 pounds. So we get the box and mattress of the futon in, and then we go for the heavy box. I don't know how heavy it actually was, but like I said, I'm a wuss. lol I had to stop 2 or 3 times between the car and house to get a better grip because the weight kept it slipping out of my hands! We had to turn it to carry it up the stairs, and the momentum (and weight!) kept the box turning when it should have stopped, which twisted my wrist. It didn't feel good, but it didn't feel excruciating, either. No big deal. Got to the top of the stairs and my foot slipped, which resulted in my fingers getting smashed between the heavy box and metal handrail. That swelled up fairly quickly, actually, and I could see it bruising within half an hour to an hour (which, blessedly, means it wasn't as deep as it easily could have been!). I think my wrist would have been just fine if it weren't for previous injuries...in 2000 I fell on it while at a roller skating rink and had to wear a splint on it for a month and in '03, it got smashed in a stainless steel walk-in refrigerator door at work (which resulted in consistent and frequent icing and a brace along with physical therapy). So it's a little more prone to injury. Sadly, it's my dominant hand. And, even worse, it means I can't knit or crochet! (Even typing isn't helping me right now, really...) It's feeling significantly better today, compared to yesterday, but it's still sore. I'm hoping I'll be back to crafting tomorrow! I have 3 scarves to work on!!!!

Scarf (and stitch marker) Fever!

I finally got one scarf out in the mail, and suddenly have 3 more to work on! Whoa! LOL I know with mailing systems and vacations and personal lives going on, that not all of the scarves have been being sent (or received) on schedule...but so long as everyone gets them back in the end, that's what counts!...right? LOL I'm one of those people that gets a little...shall we say, uptight...when it comes to being in a position of even semi-authority, and things aren't going precisely to plan. I guess I still need to learn to be more flexible! A lesson I've actually had a hard time with all my life. But I'm feeling a little restless anyway, when it comes to crafting...I haven't gotten to knit or crochet as much as I'd lake to lately. So these scarves should have a quick turn-around time. Here's hoping!

Maybe the repressed crafter in me is what's causing the outbreak of stitch markers in my house...Of course there was the 3 sets I posted pics of in my last entry, but I've since then even gone and bought more supplies for making more and made another set. And when I go to Venice this weekend (yes, again, lol), I'll be keeping my eye out for some pretty beads in addition to browsing lellabella's gorgeous yarns! (I'll post a picture of the latest set in a while...the camera's not hooked up at the moment, and I'm itching to work on these scarves!!!)

Off to craft, I go!

Keeping busy...

I've finally completed my 5" on the next scarf...Oddly, this was the simplest pattern yet, but took me the longest to get done! But I think it was more because of the timing in receiving it than anything. My husband came home from his deployment, the Summer Camp for HSKS started up (for which I am a cabin counselor!), seeking out a yarn shop in Venice...anyway, it's finally done. Now I just have to get to the post office on a day it's actually open! LOL Then Holly's scarf will be moving on....




I've also been keeping busy making stitch markers! I like how the ones I've made recently have turned out! Very pretty, in my honest (and humble) opinion! ;)

And the scarves go on...

Pictures now, words later...lol Knitted scarf is Jodi's, crocheted scarf is Ronni's....good night! LOL


Close up of the 5" I knit on Jodi's scarf (color is off, but at least you can see the cables! LOL):




Jodi's scarf so far (this picture is more accurate in color):




The 5" I crocheted on Ronni's scarf:




Ronni's "tecnicolor scarf" so far:



Now that I actually have the time to sit down and write...(at least for the present 10 seconds...) Things have been insanely busy around here! DH just got home from deployment less than a week ago, we're trying a new system for discipline, and everything keeps breaking! We've lost (and gotten back!) our Internet connection about 3 times since DH got home, lost the phone connection to the States, the car stopped working, and the lawn mower won't start, either. Absolutely insane. And as of this moment, I have a 2-year-old that thinks everything is the end of the world...he upstairs screaming and crying as loudly as possible. lol

But back to the scarves (which, hopefully, the fact we don't have a working car will not interfere with them getting out tomorrow in the mail...); the mail over here has been absolutely insane. It's taking forever for them to get to me and forever for them to get to where they're supposed to be going! The knitted scarf, Jodi's, I actually had before my husband got home, but I was so swamped with last minute preparations that I didn't have time to work on the scarf...so I finally got around to it...and the pattern I had come up with in my head just wasn't working as it came out of my fingers. So I tried something else. Still didn't work. Then I settled on the 5 cables that I ended up using (and really liking!) , but as I got further into it, I noticed it was significantly thinner than the section below mine, and I know she wanted the scarf to remain somewhat consistent in width (which I totally understand!)...so I had to undo it and try again in a different size needle...still wasn't large enough, so I went up to 8's. Finally, I was satisfied! I think it turned out quite well and am thinking 5 cables like that would look pretty cool as an entire scarf, not just a small piece of one!

Same goes for the bit I did on Ronni's...I had actually intended to use a different pattern altogether, but as I worked it, it also made the scarf a bit misshapen. So I got to frog and pick a new pattern. It didn't cooperate either, so I figured I could change how I was doing it to go off of the number of stitches that worked best with the section before mine instead of trying to stay with the same number of stitches that were used in the beginning section...sure enough, easy as pie! LOL I quite like how it turned out, actually. And I love the whole "technicolor" thing! I think the colorway I chose fit with that mantra all too well. :)

But now it's back to life...cleaning and washing dishes and trying to keep everything else from breaking and keeping the peace between the boys and...well, you get the idea! Hopefully I can fit some more crafting into there somewhere!

The ransom has been paid!!!!

It's done! Projects four and five of my ransom are completed! Well, just about...I finished the scarf a couple of days ago, and would have posted about it, but was without Internet for a couple of days. This scarf came about because of the scarf travels round robin group I'm in. I wanted a skinnier scarf than the only pattern I could find on Ravelry, and I really like the whole Irish hiking thing. So I set about making one of my own original design...took the time to write it out and everything...I was in the middle of making this scarf (a while after sending out my starter) and, lo and behold, I found a pattern nearly identical to the one I created! LOL But I really like how it turned out. I used one full skein of Red Heart and it came out to be 110" long! Long enough, I think, for my tall best friend to wrap it around her neck and have it hang to her knees! LOL





And the final project of the ransom:



This is the bag that I originally was making for my spoiler...as I tend to crochet tighter than normal, I figured I'd go up a hook size to preemptively amend the potential problem...turns out I should have checked the given gauge first...it was enormous!!! And as I contacted my spoilee more, I just didn't feel like it was the right bag. So I ended up making her a different one instead and frogged the huge one back and redid it (in the proper hook size) to donate for angel kits. Just finished it up today! I still have to add a lining though.

But the fact that I completed the yarn portion was good enough for the friend holding my sweater yarn hostage...I got my yarn from her!!! I can start my very first sweater!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So much for stick-to-it-iveness...

Ugh! I have next to no desire to finish projects! Still! Even with my sweater yarn being held hostage! That just makes it worse...I thought that would motivate me to get stuff done, but it's just making it worse because I have no motivation and am now starting to resent that little box from knit picks...I've still been starting new projects. Even though I wasn't going to and even though I wasn't supposed to. Thankfully, though, I haven't gotten far into them, so it won't really be painful to frog them. ; ) Speaking of started projects...I finally finished project number two of the five for the ransom of the sweater yarn...and here it is!:



I think, though, that the scarf travels is actually helping stem my desire to start new things. It's a chance to knit (or crochet) 5" of any yarn or pattern and then pass it on! I finally got my new debit card in the mail (after a week!!!) and was able to send off the first set of scarves yesterday, and last night did 5" on the next scarf, ready to send out tomorrow when we're on base.



Tomorrow is A's birthday party (he turned 4 yesterday!) and I have things to prepare for on that count, so I'm off for now! : )

The second leg...

Well, I finally have all 4 scarves in my possession. The 2 from Jessica came in at the same time, I still haven't had a chance to send out the first crochet one, and...ah, ok, make that 3 of the four. I can't count. LOL The first crochet one I was going to try and turn over in just one day...but my misplaced wallet threw a large wrench in those works! When I couldn't find my wallet last Tuesday, I reported my debit cards as lost and am still waiting on my replacement cards to come in. Therefore I can't access my accounts to pay to send out packages...LOL Go figure. The first leg was delayed because of both people sending to me running behind, and now they're both being delayed again because of losing my wallet temporarily. Ugh. But I had fun picking yarn for the crochet one and had fun picking a pattern for the first knit one! In fact, here's a picture of the knit section I just completed!:



It was actually pretty fun dabbling into lace-type stitching! In fact, I so much enjoyed working the pattern, that I plan to make a scarf out of it in the near future...

Now I just have to figure out what yarn and what pattern to use for Sophie's scarf...hmmm...

The Closing Ceremonies...

The Ravelympics are officially over...well, they ended about 6 hours ago...lol I just now got the chance to put up the last picture:

Yes, I finished the Dark Mark Illusion Scarf! Yay! :) I decided to not put fringe on it, as it's for my brother, who is not a fringe-y person. LOL I have yet to figure out, though, why the marks aren't lined up....I followed the pattern, recounted the rows, and all things pointed to having done it correctly....Maybe one side is stitched looser than the other....*sigh* Oh well. Too late now! LOL It still looks decent. :) Now I can prepare and practice knitting for the sock kit swap! :D

The Ravelympics!

So, for those of you that don't know, I'm also a part of a social networking site for knitters and crocheters. They're putting on this "competition" (it's really all more for fun....no prizes or anything...) in the spirit of the Olympics....we're allowed to start our projects when the opening ceremonies begin and are trying to see how many we can finish by the time the 17 days are up! I just signed up for something like 9 projects.....Yikes! I didn't realize it was that many until I counted them! LOL I'm pretty excited about it....I'll be posting them here as I complete them....this is going to be so fun!

In other news, since my last posting, I've finished not only the do-si-do lapghan for my mother-in-law and the snowflake scarf for a good friend, but started and completed the mentioned prayer blanket for a friend that lost her brother in a car accident, a prayer blanket for a son of a friend who is Jewish and in Iraq for the Army, a set of 6 book thongs, and a set of 4 daisy squares for charity! I've also started another 6-point-star for the wife of said Jewish soldier (who also happens to be stationed in Iraq for the Army) and a baby blanket for a fellow Cafemommer. Those two blankets and another granny square blanket are 3 of the projects on my Ravelympics, so I have to find something else to occupy me for the next 4 days....lol The blankets are in the WIPs wrestling category, seeing as how I started them a while ago, but I'm not supposed to continue work on them until the opening ceremonies, per Ravelympics rules. :) I guess I'd better go search my stash for the needed colors to do all the projects for the games! :)

Here I go again...

I decided to do another prayer blanket, but to use the colors I want, I have to finish my snowflake scarf and my MIL's lapghan....Well, I got to the point in the snowflake scarf where I'm on the last of 7 sections. I laid it out to take a picture for ravelry and noticed that it didn't line up! My perfectionist nature has kicked in again and I stopped because I'm actually debating on taking it apart to the point of error, which is 30 rows ago!!!! Ugh! I can't make my mind as to whether or not I'm going to let it be and just finish it (since I'm only 32 rows away)...Ha! Who am I kidding? Of course I'm going to take it apart! LOL But I don't think I'm going to do that today. I think, since I moved on to the next shade of blue and am done with the shade I need for my MIL's lapghan, that I'll finish that off first. I can't wait to be done with them! I'm so close!!!