I have not posted here before but have been reading it for a while, since I started knitting again for the first time in many years. I have made some scarves with the variegated Bernat eyelash yarn, and they are beautiful. But the fourth one, which I started today, looks terrible no matter how I do it! I wondered if anyone has any ideas.
With the other scarves, the colours pooled in attractive V-patterns at the edges. This one went into stripes and the brownish grey colour ruins the pale blue and white. So I tried a second time, with a different number of stitches, and bigger needles, starting in the middle of a colour. The colours pooled, but they still look unattractive when knitted. (By the way, the shade is called "Eyeshadow".) Then I tried a third time. I used two strands, making sure they are at non-matching places, and larger needles. The colours are now blended, like a salt and pepper hue, but it still is not attractive. Plus, using the two strands makes it thicker so it will probably be too hot for anyone to wear.
Thus I have to choose the stripes, the pools or the heavy thick doubled knitted one with the salt and pepper look.
I wondered what others would do with this yarn. Buy more and make an afghan? Give it away? Add in a solid colour as the second strand to soften it? I'm actually sorry I bought this shade now! But I am determined to make something with it.
I lean in the direction of giving the yarn away. There is plenty more yarn out there to play with, and if this particular one is giving you trouble, move on.
If you're really determined to make something out of it, I'd probably go with mixing it with another yarn, maybe something variegated in similar colors to break up the pooling and striping.
I use the varigated eyelash yarn for the cuffs on slippers. I'll make the slippers out of a matching solid colour yarn and use the varigated eyelash to spice it up around the cuffs....Have you tried adding a very fine solid coloured yarn with the eyelash, something like a sock weight or lace weight yarn? Marie and the cats
On Jul 9, 1:44 pm, "aspidistra" wrote: I have not posted here before but have been reading it for a while, since I
Marie said my idea , i like to add one or more of the Solid colors in a varigated /multycolored thread ,, this usually makes for nice `places`,,,, but as a rule i am not looking for ceratin pre convieved ideas for varigated threads , their charm lies in the UNexpetancy of their colors Appearing ,,,,,, WElcome top returning to knitting . mirjam
Thank you all for the great ideas! I am going to come to a decision soon. In the meantime I had to buy some more that was just too beautiful, in solid lavender and lilac shades, and maybe I can mix one of them in for a nice blend. Eyelash yarn has become addictive to me. I am also making an afghan out of a chunky boucle yarn and it will take a long time and is quite boring so I haven't been working on it every day. The scarves can be done in a few hours which is why I keep making more. I also saw some boa yarn today and had to get one, in a shade called "toucan" which is just so pretty that I'll wear the scarf myself if no one else will have it. Scarves are a simple way for me to get back into the swing of knitting after 25 years. I had stopped in the middle of a sweater, in 1982. Suddenly my life got too busy for knitting (I was in my thirties). The yarn, and the style are both too young for me now! But I want to go ahead and finish it anyway.
The first things I ever knitted in 1972 after a neighbour taught me were baby clothes, and one of those babies is now having a baby...and I hesitate to give her those hand knits because I asked her, and she is not sentimental at all about them so I don't think she would take care of them and give them back. The young today want new things! Whereas I would have been thrilled if my mother had saved any of my baby clothes. Anyway, I may give my child the first outfit I made her, and brought her home from the hospital in...even if she doesn't care about it too much...the trouble is, the ribbons for the bootees are missing and I can't find the right shade of yellow-orange. So, I may just crochet some ties and thread them in.
The greatest thing I ever made was a fair isle sweater. I copied my boss's authentic sweater, adapting the design to fit a tiny tot by making a chart on graph paper. I kept some of my notes which amaze me now, and of course, he returned the sweater when the baby outgrew it. I still can't believe I made it. I knitted it in the round. And I had a full time job at the time, as well as being a mother of three small children. I got all the many shades at a wool store...that doesn't exist anymore. I couldn't find the yellow, so I got a tiny bit of embroidery wool in yellow...I still have all the remnants. To this day fair isle is my favourite knitting ...I think it is magnificent and want to do it again, for everyone in the family...gloves, hats, sweaters. Now I'm a grandma, it's all I want to do. The other thing I loved was cable, once I learned to do it, yet I only ever made one hat in an Aran design, and it was lost. Well, when I learned to knit in the 70s, then did it in the 80s, there was no boucle and eyelash yarn in my world. It was all about the design and stitches. Now these fancy yarns (which my daughter chose!) have to be knitted in plain garter stitch because any design at all is overwhelmed and hidden by the texture of the yarn anyway. So this is fun for me, and an experience, but once I finish with the scarves in every colour, I'm going to do some fabulous fair isle and Aran knitting once again! Oh, and more baby clothes.
"Katherine" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@o61g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
I let the scarves sit for 2 days, discussed it with my daughter and she said I was too picky, that she would love anything. So, I decided to make both the ones I started, the stripes and the clumps of colour, and just unravel the double knitted one I started, as I need those balls to finish these two. And I'll have to buy 2 more to make matching hats.
After letting time pass and looking at them from time to time, I noticed in better light that there is a cappucino and a pale blue colour as well as the chocolate brown and periwinkle. There is no white.
When I think of these pretty shades, the scarf seems somehow nicer. I know chocolate brown is popular with young people, though it was never a big favourite of mine. So, it's all in the eye of the beholder. In some ways it's like some luscious dessert. And as I knitted and the repeating pattern became apparent, the delicate cappucino and the blues became more evident and the brown was like an accent.
In fact it would make a lovely afghan but I'm already doing an afghan in shades of blues and beige to match my daughter's sofa, in chunky boucle.
Well, I have to find a hat pattern for eyelash yarn, or design or adapt my own, based on the two hats that my daughter has that fit her. She wants a hat to match each scarf. Trouble is, one of her old hats is knitted flat and sewn up the seam, with huge yarn and cables; and the other is crocheted with no brim. I don't have a clue where to begin, unless I start knitting, measure, knit to fit her head, and decrease. But I haven't made a hat since
1982 and I do not remember how! So far I can't find any eyelash hat pattern; just a tam which maybe I will try (beret).
You could knit your scarf longways- like cast on 200 stitches and knit only a few rows. Or, chevron patterns often look good with variegated yarns, like a simple garter stitch mitre.
At Christmas I found some brilliant blue eyelash yarn in a pound shop in Wales. We were staying on a daughter's farm in our tiny caravan. I had no patterns but cast on a circle of about the right size then knitted plain for about eight tows then started to decrease, first on the eighth stich then seventh and so on. It fitted me and was fun but 18 month old grandson grabbed it and has worn it ever since.
A hat takes so little knitting that if you go wrong you can pull it out without much wasted time. Fancy yarns won't show where you've changed your mind and if anyone DID notice you could congratulated them on spotting the deliberate mistake,put in to test the observation of your friends :-)
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