18 May 2007

Pondering Mauch Chunky

One day, I will learn not to buy yarn without a project in mind.

This is not a self-flagellation over 'stash.' Such stash as I have fits in a small storage box on the floor of my linen closet. I don't have an extravagant backlog. I would like to knit some of it away, but I am not so overwhelmed that I feel a need to either beat myself up publicly or offer large chunks of it for sale.

It is however, the result of some meditation on what to do with those two skeins of Mauch Chunky I bought at Sheep & Wool. When I bought them, I was thinking 'well, that's enough to make a hat and a scarf or something.'

What I was neglecting to think was that I really don't like stocking caps/watch caps/beanies/tocques/[insert your local dialectical variation here] very much.

In fact, I don't like them at all. As far as I can tell, all they do is call attention to the fact that I have a long face with wide cheekbones and a pointy chin, while covering up the widow's peak which allows me the consoling illusion of 'heart-shaped face' rather than 'horse-faced.'

I'm just not into that, and I should know by now that 'knitting a hat or something' for myself is more 'or something' than 'hat.'

So I have been meditating on the notion of headcoverings and my two pretty skeins of chunky wool. I'm currently thinking that a hooded scarf might be good compromise between 'hat' and 'or something.'

The next step is finding a hooded scarf pattern that does not involve pompoms, tassels, stitches that annoy me (e.g. bobbles), or is matronly, silly, or poorly designed. Oh, and of course, will work with the yarn I have. I don't want much, do I?

(Yes, yes, of course I could design something myself. I may wind up doing that. But I don't want to dismiss the idea that someone has already written the pattern without looking.)

So here's what I've found: knitting patterns for hooded scarves which satisfy my various wants are only slightly less rare than sheep that speak poodle. For one thing, there seem to be many more crochet patterns for hooded scarves than knitting patterns. Of the knit patterns, I didn't find many for sale, and of those none I wanted to buy. Of the free ones, I am looking hard at three.

D-made.com's Hoodie Scarf (PDF link) is quite awesome and I like it best of all the patterns I've seen. However, I don't have sufficient yardage of the Mauch Chunky to pull it off. Though I might have enough of some raspberry pink superwash wool which is deep in the stash box. Hmm. I should check that.

Chocolate Ruffles flirts around the edges of silly, but is cute, and might be one of my few opportunities to get away with ruffles. (Hard experience has taught me that my *cough* baroque figure is best served by observing neoclassical simplicity of line in my clothes. But a few ruffles around the face couldn't do any harm, could they?) Downsides: I am not sure if I have enough yarn for it (close but not quite), and I am really not sure I want to muck around with finding a contrast yarn that will play nicely with the Mauch. (Entirely aside, a print yarn that had a coordinating solid would be great for this -- I'm thinking of something like the way Elann Sonata comes in prints and solids here. Something like the Brazilia print as CC with Coffee Bean solid as MC, only in wool, not cotton).

Knitpicks has added a Hooded Scarf to their collection of free patterns. This one comes closest to working with the yarn I have but I am somewhat ambivalent about it. I am not sure but that the shaping on the hood portion pushes it a little too close to 'matronly' (or even 'woolly-hatted granny') for my tastes.

Clearly I need to think more on this. Know any good hooded scarf patterns I may have missed?

1 comment:

  1. I don't know how you wear your hair, but if it's long or you wear it up, what about Knitty's Calorimetry, with a separate scarf? It might look different from a watch cap to be appealing for you. It doesn't use a whole lot of yarn but works fine with bulky, with a litle adjustment. (I made mine in Manos.)

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