Red Scarf Project: January 2007 Archives
Woohoo! My Red Scarf is finished. It's a bit over 5' long and a bit over 8" wide. It's knit with a simple basketweave stitch (with the first stitch on each edge slipped) using Lamb's Pride Worsted. I used 2 skeins and probably 25%-30% of a third to get it to the length I wanted it to be.
Tonight I'm going to find a pretty ribbon and a card to write a little note and provide some care instructions. And as soon as I can I'm going to head to Borders to get a little gift card so that the recipient of my scarf can indulge in a new book, CD, magazines or whatever other little treat they might like to have for themselves. Call me a geek, but when I was in college being able to add to my music collection and indulge in a shiny new magazine was always a little bit of a treat. I actually got a subscription to Time magazine even back then and always looked forward to it as a break from studying.
And I'd still like to encourage everyone out there who is working on a scarf to perservere! There are still two weeks left and I suspect that there are many students who will love your efforts no matter how simple or complicated. If you would like to see more about the project, you can find more information here.
Just in case you missed the address of the Orphan Foundation of America to send the scarves to earlier this week, I thought I'd post it again:
c/o Care Package
Orphan Foundation of America
21351 Gentry Drive, Suite 130
Sterling, Virginia 20166
P.S. to all of you knee sock lovers out there... first of all, thank you for all your words of praise and support. Kind words are always appreciated. Second, after I finish my socks I'll put all my notes together and make them available to everyone.
I'm almost a little embarrassed to be posting this picture. After all, you would have thought that if anyone would have been done with their Red Scarf for the Orphan Foundation of America, it should have been me. In this case, I am a victim of my desire to create something "truly special". This desire gets me in trouble with my knitting all the time. It is why my sister-in-law still doesn't have a felted handbag after a Christmas promise 3 years ago. It is why my aunt is still waiting for a scarf, even though I have the most delicious baby alpaca yarn all ready to go. Believe it or not, this scarf is the 4th iteration after several unsuccessful starts from Knitting in Nature and some ideas that didn't quite work out from a couple of interesting pattern stitches from Barbara Walkers treasure troves.
After the third failure, I realized that I was probably trying to make this too difficult. In my attempt to create something "truly special" I was going to end up getting blocked and not creating anything at all. I also stepped back from it from a bit and had the realization that the "truly special" part of this scarf did not have to be some artistic design. The truly special part was going to be the fact that I invested the time to make something warm for someone who is working hard to make their way in the world with not a lot of support. Amazing that that realization took so long, but sometimes my brain doesn't work in the way that you might expect it to.
After that, I turned back to Barbara Walker in search of something simple, unisex and something that a college student might not mind wearing. I'd never knit anything using a traditional basketweave stitch before, and that seemed to fit all the criteria I had in mind. So I cast on and after watching 6" or so come together rather smoothly, I decided that this was the right pattern for the job. Simple, do-able, but still an interesting texture.
This picture was taken about a week ago. Since then I've gotten through my second skein of Lamb's Pride worsted and I'm about to start on my third (it's only 52" or so long and I think if it were going to be a scarf for me, I'd want it to be at least 60"). It's home stretch time -- I know I'll have time to finish it and get it to where it is supposed to go.
In case you didn't read it on Norma's Red Scarf 2007 project blog here's a reminder that the Orphan Foundation is ready to accept Red Scarves -- you can send them in any time between now an the end of January.
Here's the address:
c/o Care Package
Orphan Foundation of America
21351 Gentry Drive, Suite 130
Sterling, Virginia 20166
As a reminder, the organizers are encouraging everyone to attach a note of encouragement (and care instruction) to the scarves and they would really love it if scarf knitters or other project supporters would consider including some other little gift such as stamps, a gift card, candy, etc. This request made me think back to college -- I always appreciated those little extras from my mom and other family members who remembered me.
If you haven't started yet... there is still time. Get some red yarn, find a simple stitch, and knit like the wind. Remember, what's truly special is that someone took the time to make something for someone else who might need a little boost. There's really nothing in life more truly special than the gift of time.
