Knit Knot Purl Curl: Ruffled Scarves using Netted Yarn

It's been awhile since I've posted here on my blog. I tend to put my projects on Ravelry and then completely forget to blog about them. I've been busy recently knitting some Christmas gifts. After the first of the year I'll blog about what I made and show some photos.

I recently saw this video from Isela showing a ruffled scarf she had made using a knitting board. I thought it was beautiful and had never seen or heard of this net type of yarn. She used Katia Triana which usually sells for about $12 per skein. The first thing I did was scour the internet searching for these types of yarns. These are the brands I found and the prices they usually sell for.

Sundance Frill - $4
Premier Starbella - $6
Red Heart Sashay - $7
Hobby Lobby Chrysalis - $7
Bernat Twist and Twirl - $7
Patons Pirouette - $8
Katia Triana - $12
Knitting Fever Flounce - $12
Rozetti Marina - $12
Rozetti Marina Glitz - $17
Frill Seeker - $15

These skeins normally have about 33 yards which doesn't sound like much, but is plenty to make a 60" or longer scarf. The Red Heart Sashay, Bernat Twist and Twirl and Patons Pirouette you may be able to find locally at Hobby Lobby, Michaels or AC Moore. Hobby Lobby has their own brand called Chrysalis. My Michaels carried none of these and Hobby Lobby said they sold out of their brand as soon as it came in. The one day I was there they only had a butt ugly green color. LOL

Every place online that sold this type of yarn either only had awful colors left or they were back ordered and out of stock until the end of this year or February 2012!

I finally lucked up and found some on ebay!

So, while waiting on my yarn to arrive I tried one with some Lion Brand Ruffles yarn that I had purchased a year or more ago and it came out nice too, although different from the net type yarns. It has since been discontinued. I mixed the white and tweed every other row as I wasn't sure I'd have enough.

It came out 60" and used a whole skein of the white and one of the tweed.

I've been using size 10.5 DPN's to knit mine and have been CO only 6 or 7 stitches which is plenty. However, after about the 3rd scarf my left hand was very sore from the way I had to hold the needles to keep the stitches from slipping off. Which by the way is very easy to do. I crochet too but found it was just too hard to make these that way and I preferred the needles to using the knitting board as well. I just thought there had to be an easier way. Well, there is!!!

I remembered my end pieces that came with my adjustable knitting board. They have 8 pegs and work wonderfully! Using them is so fast and you don't have to worry about losing your stitches or your hands hurting. So, you say why not just use the knitting board like Isela shows in the video? I did try that way, but found it too fiddly and aggravating having to keep the work pushed down in the middle of the board. Plus having to put the loops from the yarn on the back side of the pegs, transferring all loops to the other side of the board after each row and continually turning the knitting board. For me just entirely too frustrating. So, in my next post I'll try to explain using the end pieces and show lots of photos as well. For me this way is so much easier and you may find that true too.

So, until then try to find some of this new type yarn and watch some videos on youtube showing how to use this yarn.