I bought some sari remnants from Jo-Ann fabric because it was pretty. I tell you .. the remnants section is DANGEROUS!

As usual, it had been sitting in my drawer of fabrics for a while. One day I had a brilliant idea of making it in to a scarf. However, I needed another, more softer fabric for the back side (the side that would go against the neck). Luckily, I had another remnant piece of fleece similar in color so I sewed the two together and called it a day!

Here is a close up of the fabric:

Isn’t it pretty!!!

- ASH

I was inspired by Disney over at Ruffles and Stuff to make my own trimmings scarf. I originally had the lace laid out just like my inspiration but something kicked in and I decided to do things a bit different. I liked the way it turned out. And more importantly the person who received this as a gift loved it too!

I had gotten a bunch of lace of different types. The widest one, I ruffled by basting and then gathering the fabric together. The laces were white and cream but I wanted a more vintage look so I gave them all a tea bath overnight. The cream ones turned out perfect but the white ones were a bit to pink so I didn’t use as much.

The base of the scarf is fleece fabric cut to length.
I did a zig-zag stitch along the edges for show.

It can be worn more than one way to give a different look.

Here it is on a hanger so you can see the laces all flat.

The flowers I had bought made, but they were a bit small compared to the larger lace already on the scarf. So I added lace behind the flowers and that helped make them stand out a bit more. It turned out well. What do you think?

- ASH

I finally started a scarf for myself. Progress seems slow since it is for me. Weird isn’t it? I work harder for gifts for others.

The pattern is called “Quick Easy-Peasy Scarf”. I’m using my favorite color .. purple. Doesn’t it look pretty!

- ASH

Since my sister’s birthday was two days ago, I get to reveal her present to all.

You got it, it is a scarf with all it’s glorious ruffles.

Isn’t it pretty?! I want to make my own version of this. And it was fairly easy because there wasn’t a hard pattern to remember. Another good thing was that I found a good way to pass the time on the metro!

Project Info:

• Started: December 8 2009
• Completed: January 5 2010
• Pattern: Misti Chunky Ribs Ruffles Scarf 
• Yarn: Lion Brand – Vanna’s Choice
• Color: 108 Dusty Blue
• How Much: 2 skeins
• Modifications: I wanted a wider scarf so I calculated with the pattern for the following mods:
  • Cast on 124
  • Decrease to 62 in Row 1
  • Decrease to 31 in Row 2
  • When beginning to end the scarf:
  • Increase to 62
  • Increase to 124
  • Bind off
• My Comments: The yarn was easy to work with, and given the fact that both needle and yarn were thicker it was much easier than the first scarf. The pattern was easy to remember and I would definitely recommend this for a beginner.

- ASH

Today is my sister’s birthday! YAAAY for birthdays! I wish her a very happy birthday!!

Here’s a sneak peak of her present.

Happy Birthday!

- ASH

The younger version of me (oh say 10-12 years ago) watched my mother in awe when she would make sweaters for my siblings and me. I always wanted to be like her, proficient in: cooking, sewing, knitting. I still compare my cooking to hers and am disappointed many times.

Have you ever wondered how your mom could do all these things and make it look so effortless?! Since becoming a wife, I feel more responsibility in keeping the house up and running, unlike my single days where things just had to work, not work beautifully. And I’m still adjusting and finding new ways to get all my responsibilities and interests fit in to one day. Maybe it is the "I WANT IT NOW" personality in me that makes me impatient.

But enough side tracking and back to knitting. Yes, I miss the sound of the metal needles clicking when my mother would knit. I missed it so much that I went to Michaels and bought some yarn and my own pair of metal needles. I also headed over to the library and picked up a dozen books, no literally, a dozen. The Hubster asked if I was really going to read them all!

Then one day, I sat myself down and tried to follow the book so that I could learned to knit! Boy was I in for a surprise .. I didn’t understand what they meant. The illustrations were confusing at best and the descriptions left me scratching my head. I was thinking, is knitting really this hard?

Well, I wasn’t about to give up there. I headed on to my lovely computer to see what I could find on the interwebs. I was in luck, people had spent some time making excellent videos that explain how to do the basics and some more!

My fun didn’t stop there; let me tell you that even have seen many videos I had to start over 4 times before I had a good handle on the scarf I started to make. On one try I made the scarf too wide and after about 4 inches of knitting I noticed holes EVERYWHERE!! It was like orange colored Swiss cheese! I bet my friend, Miss Cheesemonger would have a heart attack when she saw such a thing!

All was not lost because after a month’s time I finally made it through my first scarf!! I made it especially for the Hubster and he loved it! Yaaay!

Project Info:

• Started: November 5 2009
• Completed: December 7 2009
• Pattern: Mini Mochi Tripled Rib Stitch Scarf
• Yarn: Red Heart Soft
• Color: 9275 Paprika
• How Much: 1.5 skeins
• Modifications: The yarn called for a size 8 needle and I used a size 5 instead.
• My Comments: The yarn was difficult to work with as a beginner (there were two fibers wrapped together). I kept mistaking each fiber as a stitch which initially created an increase in stitches. But it was good to get that sorted out on the first few attempts. The pattern was easy to follow; would recommend for beginners.

- ASH