FO Tuesday!
Pattern: Alberta Scarf from Stahman’s Shawls and Scarves
Designer: Myrna Stahman
Yarn: Fiesta Heaven in Adirondack, 1 skein
Needles: US 7 Addi Natura’s
# of Pattern Repeats: 3 wide plus 6 sts wide borders and 7.75 repeats lengthwise plus 8 row border
Dimension: 49.5″ X 8″ pre-blocking, 55″ X 12″ post-blocking
I don’t know why I ended up with 7.75 pattern repeats on the first lace panel, but that’s what it was when I went to match the second one. Go figure. But, I don’t think I had enough leftover yarn to have finished that quarter of a repeat on both ends anyway, so it was good luck! I have maybe 3 yards remaining from one skein.
Overall, I like the idea of seaman scarves. They do lay quite nicely. However, with a yarn that gets blocked severely, most of those scarf patterns were much too wide, IMHO. The finished dimension on these is 22 X 12 inches for each lace panel and 11 inches for the ribbed section. It will definitely cover well, but I don’t think it will double as a nice fashion accessory, as it covers all of my ample sized body. It will no doubt be plenty warm though. I could reduce the width a bit by decreasing those borders, I think I could easily cut them in half which would reduce the width by about an inch or so. The yarn also pooled quite unusually in little dashes of color making it appear somewhat stripey. It isn’t quite my taste, but I love the color combination and it will look lovely on Grandma’s complexion and she’ll be bowled over with the lace work I’m sure. I know it’ll be well loved and probably shown off to the ladies are the hairdresser’s and at church.
Snow saved the day with the blocking as she let me steal her blocking wires on Sunday afternoon. It went quite slick to block this scarf with those and our steamer. It was really odd to watch the yarn swell and relax when the hot steam hit it. It cause little undulations. I thought about taking video, but ultimately decided it was so subtle it probably wouldn’t come across at web resolution.
I’ll leave you with a closer look at the lace pattern…
I started Grandpa’s hat last night, but more on that later in the week…
