Frou-Frou

Generally speaking as a knitter I tend to work with natural fibers and am highly partial to alpaca, pima cotton, silk and cashmere. But, every once in awhile a girl’s just gotta have fun. With the abundance of fun, funky, furry, sparkly yarns out there it is very tempting to try new things. So I decided to post a few of my experiments. Nothing is particularly original but they are fun items made with the new, funky yarns available.

The first project is a pair of black burn-out velvet gloves that I bought at Marshall’s for $2. I added the frou-frou cuffs knit from a double strand of Fun Fur in black. I just knit a small tube and stitched it to the hem of the glove but they are so funky and cute. I feel like a poodle when I wear them.

I liked that so much that I made another pair of gloves from an old Vogue pattern I’ve had for probably 10 years. I had some leftover lilac stretch velvet so I made the gloves and then made lilac cuffs for them. They actually match beautifully though you can’t see it in the photo.

Some time back I made a sweater for my sister Lisa using one strand of violet boucle wool and one strand of a pastel “ladder” yarn I got from eBay. She loved the sweater and there was a lot of the pastel yarn left so the other day I decided to just knit it up. It is really just a long rectangle about 12” wide and 40” long but it looks really pretty draped around the neck or over the head. It’s totally useless for warmth but it is cute and that’s all I ask of it.

The other two items shown here are also long scarves that were very simple to knit. What makes them interesting is the combination of yarns. The first one is about 8 ft long but only 6” wide. It looks like a boa draped around and around the head and neck. I used four different yarns --- a pretty blue faux fur, a sparkly pink and gold metallic yarn, a lilac mohair and a sparkly, multi-colored yarn in shades of blue. I knit on the bias because I wanted it to drape and it certainly does that. I should photograph it draped around someone so you can see how it looks.

Finally is my striped scarf that was knit lengthwise by casting 120 stitches on a circular #10 needle. The yarns in this are really pretty. I used four different faux fur and faux feather yarns in blues, teals and violets, and a ball of Eros in black with white “beads”. I finished it with a fringe of black raw silk left over from my black lace cocoon made from a strand of silk and a strand of cashemere.

So that’s what silly stuff I have been working on lately. They are quick projects and fun to make and a terrific gift for the young ladies on my list who are into frou-frou. And that includes this old young-lady. I have spent the last couple of evenings curled up with a video and knitting which is a wonderful thing to do when you have a horrid cold. Last night I finished the first of my Gryffindor scarves while watching a DVD of Masterpiece Theater's 1998 production of Frenchman's Creek. Anthony Delon (son of actor Alaine Delon) played Jean Aubery, the pirate, in that. Oh, be still my heart! Johnny Depp should eat his heart out. So that's it from the land of frou-frou and o-o-la-la!

Thanks for reading.