Stormy Seas Treasury

I'm totally digging this treasury.  Look at all that lovely turquoise!  Don't you think gray and turquoise look lovely together?  I can't get enough.
It doesn't hurt that Scarf 19 is one of my most favorite scarves - the two grays are a special alpaca blend that are super soft and squishy.  It's also super long.  And of course, there's the turquoise.

It's only 79 degrees in Austin right now, which is approximately 30 degrees cooler than the hottest temperatures of the past week.  Not exactly scarf weather (even I can admit that).  But just today the wind began to blow, the clouds turned a little darker, and suddenly it felt . . . cool.  Yes, when you're used to triple digits, 79 actually feels cool.  The sky was gray, the breeze was reminiscent of the ocean, and then I came home and saw this treasury, the perfect picture of what I'd been feeling.

I can't stay inside a moment longer - I have to go for a walk to gaze at the clouds and fully appreciate this all-too-fleeting moment of cool.  I hope that wherever you are the weather is doing something nice, giving you a fresh breath of whatever you've been craving.

Revisiting Ruffles: Scarf 40 & Scarf 45

Meet two new ruffle scarves with dashingly different personalities.

Scarf 40 is a confection in wool & acrylic - ruffles in gray, blue, and teal on either side of a charcoal gray stripe. Soft and snuggly, with the same versatile properties of earlier ruffle scarves and slightly thicker for extra warmth.

Scarf 45 is an entirely different animal - vertical felted stripes in burnt orange with soft ruffled stripes in speckled greens & reds. Scarf 45 is wide and thick but not too long, perfect for wrapping around the neck twice and tucking into a coat.

Big & Tall & Warm for All

One of my yoga students, a tall guy, was complimenting my scarves the other night and asked for an extra long, extra wide scarf to suit his frame. Now, you should know by now that there's little I love more than a special request. He didn't have any specific colors in mind, so I told him I'd bring some yarns to class next week to see what he liked and we'd go from there.

Not content to wait, I went ahead and whipped up these two bad boys. Both are over 7 feet long and woven from thick & fuzzy wools & acrylics (with some mohair, cholorofibre, and other things thrown into the mix). They both have a big presence, making them perfect for taller people or cold northerners who love to wrap themselves in giant scarves.

My Big & Tall Fellas will be making their debut at Mind Body Yoga tomorrow and may visit Etsy later in the week if they don't get snapped up first.

Scarf 17: Rrrruffles have Rrrrridges

Ooh to the la to the ooh-la-la. Scarf 17 is so glamorous I can't even stand it. It's all soft and squishy and shiny and ruffle-y. But let's start at the beginning, shall we? Like all her brothers and sisters, Scarf 17 started life flat, as a series of long threads. I decided to try some asymmetrical striping, as you can see here, on the loom. That's black cotton and silver/gray acrylic. You can't see the sparkles now, but just wait.

The weft yarn (side to side) is the same supersoft white and black handspun cotton that you met in Scarf 4. Let's take a closer look.

Can you see the sparkles now? Sometimes they're hard to see when the photo is small - feel free to click on it to make it larger if you'd like to get a better sense of the silver winding through what appears to be a wide gray stripe.

After coming off the loom, Scarf 17 was subjected to the ruffle treatment, but she didn't mind. I created an off-center ruffle running the length of the scarf, much like Scarf 10 but without the felting.

I'm so super pleased with the result (can you tell?). Scarf 17 just seems to have it all - softness, texture, stripes, sparkles, and those lovely ruffles. I love the ruffles because they add such a lovely three dimensional quality without adding extra bulk. The result is a scarf that looks great no matter how you wrap it - ta da!

Scarf 17 is available in my Etsy shop.

(Blogger is being so buggy today. I hope they fix it soon, but in the meantime I'm sorry for things looking all wonky.)

Will the real Scarf 12 please stand up?

+++ Earlier today I published a post all about Scarf 12. If you're getting this via Reader, you've probably already seen it. The trouble with that post is that all the pictures weren't of Scarf 12, they were of Henry's scarf, which I grabbed by accident to photograph this morning. Oops! Here we go again - same story, different pictures. +++

Last winter I made a scarf for Henry (my better half) and everywhere he wore it people told him he looked like George Clooney. Henry looks nothing like George Clooney. What's up with this scarf? Magic, I think. Only answer that makes sense.

Of course I couldn't go too long without recreating the magic of the George Clooney scarf, so that all men (not just my husband) can have the good fortune to go around being mistaken for movie stars.

The secret is a silvery gray wool crossed with a variegated gray and brownish-olivish wool/acrylic blend. The result is a surprisingly sophisticated scarf with colors that shift in the light. Very adaptable, kind of like George Clooney.

Newlin the Cat is getting as close to it as possible so that he might be mistaken for George Clooney too. I don't have the heart to tell him the magic only works for people.

Scarf 12 is for sale in my Etsy shop.

Scarf 7: Rainbow, meet Rain Cloud

Wouldn't Scarf 7 look great with a denim jacket? My cousin Zak says it's perfect because the colors are happy but not too bright. My mom says it's perfect because it's not too wide, so you can loop it around and around your neck.

I had such fun weaving Scarf 7 because the stripes are all one yarn, making it fun to see what's coming next! And I love the way the colors interact with the silvery gray lengthwise yarn (warp yarn).

You can find Scarf 7 for sale here, in my Etsy shop.

Scarf 3: A Comfort Cloud

It's hard to describe the magic of Scarf 3. It's like the softest spider web, but strong enough that you can wear it without fear of it falling apart. It's super soft and light. I tested it out in 107 degree heat and it was super comfortable. I like it because it adds a lot of texture and interest without any weight or bulk.

It all began with the softest, thinnest baby alpaca lace yarn.

Even on the loom it looks like spider web threads, doesn't it?

Or some kind of fairy magic?

Here it is woven and off the loom, waiting to be felted.

You can find Scarf 3 for sale here, in my Etsy shop.