Knitting My Own Scarf of Doom

When Deadly Knitshade blogged “Knitting the Scarf of Doom.” I thought she was writing about my current project. After thinking about doing a KAL for years, I signed up for StarAthena’s Stumptown Knits KAL and was excited to download the first project, January’s project, the Willamette Scarf. I loved the look of the herringbone knit and, after being bested by the linen stitch last Christmas, I was determined to learn it.

Did I mention that this is January’s KAL project? *looks at the calendar*

I have frogged this scarf more than any other project that I didn’t ultimately abandon. The first couple of times it was the linen stitch. Once I finally got it, it was time to switch to herringbone. I frogged that after realizing all the stitches angled the same way. After that, I set it aside to work on my January Granddaughter Project and promptly forgot how the increase worked. That one alone was an 8 inch rip. I’m past the halfway point. I think I may have it done in time for… the March KAL.

Oh, and if you’ve missed the real Scarfgate or Scarf of Doom story, check it out on Whodunnknit. If you’d like to knit your own scarf of doom, there is a great thread Scarf of Doom KAL thread on Ravelry.

Geeking On Firefly (& important lessons learned)

Very excited to write this first Wired Yarn post. When thinking of which project to share as my first one, it was simple.

Jayne’s Hat

For any Firefly fan, you automatically know what I’m talking about.

I originally started this as a Christmas ’11 project for my brother-in-law. (Many thanks to Kim Werker for posting her crochet pattern on Crochet Me. I couldn’t have done this without you. I know you didn’t know I saw your post til now.)

Due to the nature of me wanting to reproduce the hat as close to the real thing as possible, I decided to actually follow the pattern (a first for me) and not just do my own thing. This was the first time I experienced using stitch markers.

I used old wine glass charms as markers.
They pull double duty quite well.

The most important lesson learned from this project is “gauge“. As you see in the photo below

there’s quite a bit of give in the hat. This is me wearing Jayne’s hat before finishing touches.

I learned to ensure my gauge is good before proceeding with a project. Especially when it has to fit well.

Unfortunately, I do not yet have a finished photo of this project since, when finishing it, I ripped out an ear flap. I have promised my BIL that he’ll still get his Jayne’s Hat, but it has currently gone on the back burner of projects.

Such is the life of someone with ADD having more than one project going at the same time. LOL

Eyecatching Knitting

When I was in the throes of Christmas knitting, my youngest son, who I refer to online as DS3 (I’m sure you’ll figure out the pattern as we move along), asked me if I could make this hat for him.

Team Zissou in action

Like a good mom I said, yes. I mean it’s a hat, right? How long could it take?

He wanted six. Six hats from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

His brother, DS2 (you picking up on the pattern yet?), wanted one too. Make that seven, but now I was committed. I set aside my Christmas knitting for 7 hats for poor college boys.

Stack of hats

Since then, I keep running into this hat. First it was this Allstate Commercial:

and then it was this video of Murray Gold playing his theme, “I am the Doctor.”

Okay, so Murray’s has a pom-pom, but it’s basically the same look. Life Aquatic might be an 8 year old film, but the look is catching on.

What Is Wired Yarn?

If you’ve found yourself here, reading this, then you are most likely wondering what the heck Sandy and Rick are doing now?

You’re thinking, “those two crazies plug my Twitter feed with their geekdom all the time. Now they want to fill the blogosphere with their mayhem?”

Um…Yeah! That’s it exactly.

We have had so much fun sharing coffee on random weekday mornings, talking about such things as NCIS, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Trek,  (this list really goes on and on). Often you’ll see Sandy pull out her latest knitting project (Rick has on occasion as well). There’s always a cell phone or two involved (for tweeting, of course). Usually, the Nooks come out.

Yes, we’ve decided to share this fun with all of you. There’s just too much of it to keep to ourselves. We want to take our love (read – obsession) with our geekdoms and show you how our minds warp… er… translate, that into yarn and craft projects.

Did you see that scarf in the latest Sherlock Holmes movie? So did we, and we are on the hunt to create it ourselves.  Do you love the sweater that Sally wears in Being Human? Yeah, that’s our newest search to find how to do it as well! You get the idea.

As you see, there’s more to our morning coffee mayhem than just Tweets. Stay tuned for the mayhem to ensue.