Monday, August 27, 2012

Inspiration: Novelty Yarn

 

I was recently given a couple of skeins of Ice Yarns Frilly, a new novelty yarn that creates a ruffle when you knit or crochet with it.  This is a very popular type of yarn these days, and I had been meaning to try it but hadn’t gotten around to it.  Thanks to my daughter, Katie, I now had some to play around with.

I had the idea that I’d like to try something a little different with this yarn than the typical scarf pattern one usually sees it used for.  Katie had made a beautiful headband with some of hers, but I didn’t want to duplicate what she had done.

As I looked at the yarn (which in its un-knitted state looks like a thick, ½ inch wide braid), I thought that I would like to try using it in tandem with another yarn.  I searched my stash and found just the thing…Cascade Eden, a lovely bamboo yarn, in a shade of hot pink that was very close to the darker edge of the Frilly.  I reasoned that if I used another yarn for the base of the scarf, the novelty yarn would go farther. 

To make the scarf, I began crocheting with the Eden for a few rounds, then worked a slip stitch with the Frilly for a round, working into the darker edge of the braid so the lighter shade was at the outer edge of the ruffle.  This worked pretty well, and I believe it used less of the Frilly than working in single crochet would have used.  I worked another round in Eden, and then decided to try a different effect on the edge.  Working into the light edge of the Frilly this time, I used the Eden to slip stitch the Frilly to each stitch of the scarf, inserting the hook closer than I had on the previous Frilly round.  This created a less ruffled look, with the darker shade on the outer edge of the ruffle.

I had enough of the Frilly left that I was able to make a cap with a couple of rounds of Frilly with the remainder of the ball of yarn!





2 comments:

Sharon said...

This is so amazing--We are on the same wavelength! I've been making ruffles scarves for my nieces for Christmas presents and I always use another yarn to make the ruffle go further.

I've been knitting mine (alternating two rows of each) but have been thinking of crocheting a scarf lengthwise--just like you did. And then I thought of even experimenting with it on the knitting machine. What else could we do with this stuff?

Rebecca said...

Cool, Sharon! I'd like to see your knitted ones. I'm sure, if we brainstormed, we could come up with other uses as well!