Working through some quick holiday presents, over the past week (and in spite of deadlines) I managed to do up a Kureopatora’s Snake scarf. I used some Southwest Trading Company Karaoke, a 50% soy silk. 50% wool thin/thick single, with equivocal results.

To start with, I bought the Karaoke with this scarf in mind. I picked up just two skeins of it on a lark, in a now defunct yarn shop I visited during a business trip to Savannah, Georgia. I was rushed and didn’t have much time to play. My magpie self was attracted to the jewel like colors and the promise of exceptionally long repeats. I selected two skeins of the same color number and dyelot that looked to have the same colors on the outside, with the hope that they would be more or less symmetrical in their color progression. By the label, two skeins together were about 220 yards – short yardage for this project as written, but I decided that if I made a narrow Snake over 22 instead of 30 stitches, I’d have enough.

The yarn in the first skein was quite thick, with very few thin sections. The twist was uneven, with some heavily twisted thick bits, and some parts that were almost like untwisted roving. There were clot like “fluffs” of extraneous fiber stuck to the main strand that I picked off as I was working. Skein #1 began and ended with dark blue. I knit away, starting from the center of the skein. Repeats were exceptionally long. The entire skein seemed to encompass only one (the two yellow areas are markedly different). Starting at the photo’s left, I got to the scarf’s dark blue center section before I ran out of yarn.

Because I had two highly similar skeins and the repeat was so long I decided to try to play with color placement. I began using the second skein – also showing blue on its exterior – starting from the outside in. This yarn being 50% wool spit splices nicely, so I melded my trailing blue end onto the same color blue from the outside of the second skein and kept going.

Now is when the equivocal part kicks in. While the color matched nicely, the second skein was unlike the first in thickness, with extremely overtwisted thin sections making up the bulk of the thing, studded with lots of those fluffy fiber clots. The difference between the two balls is noticeable when knit, although I didn’t notice it in the skein. If you compare the left leg in the photo (knit with the thicker yarn) and the right leg (knit with the thinner second skein) you can see the difference in achieved width. The drape is quite different, too, with the left side being thick and plush, and the right side being skimpy by comparison.

Finally, while it didn’t matter much for this project, the total yardage for the two skeins was wildly different. I knit every inch of skein #1. I had about a quarter of skein #2 left over when I reached the comparable color point on my second leg and decided to end off.

So I now have a pretty and color-balanced rainbow Snake Scarf, that looks much better than it drapes. Plus a caution for anyone buying this yarn who expects to make something larger than a hat or pair of mitts from it. Printed yardage and gauge are both VERY unreliable. Buy one extra skein for every three you estimate that you need, just in case you end up with short yardage (though full weight) fat-yarn skeins. And if you want to use this for small projects, be advised that depending on the thickness in your skeins, you could be working this at anything from DK to bulky weight gauge. Also be advised that although soft, this yarn catches easily on everything, even dry skin, and on the highly saturated #298 colors will run when washed (based on the blue shedding when handled with damp hands). Final verdict – I wouldn’t use it again without specific reason, and if I had reason, would only buy this in person, and only after close inspection for uniformity.

Oh. How to make a wider or narrower Snake? Easy. Start the project as written. Continue the initial increase section until you have achieved an even number of stitches and your piece is the width you want. Work the trumpet like sections in the same method as written. Work the final section like the others until you have HALF of the stitches on each needle. On the next right side row (the one that commences at the left edge where you increased on previous rows) begin with a SSK instead of the increase. Continue until you have three stitches remaining on your needle. On the last row, SSSk all three of those stitches together.

Technorati : knitting

Where have I been?  Working.  There are some times in a proposal writer’s life when the project at hand grows to the point of devouring all other life.   I’m writing from mid-peristalis right now, deep in the belly of the beast.   My house is a shambles, and it is only through the cooperation and understanding of my family that any shred of normalcy remains.  Side entertainments like blogging are out of the question right now.

Through it all though when I do get to sit down for a minute I’ve been stress-taming with trivial knitting.  No projects worth a darn, but calming none the less.

Mostly I’ve been playing with odds and ends from my stash.  For example, to answer some questions about other yarns suitable for the Kureopatora’s Snake Scarf, I’ve been playing with Noro Kureyon.

Apologies for the dark photo, again I just don’t have time to tend to details properly. As you can see, the long color repeat of the Kureyon worked nicely for this project, with single color slices lasting almost the entire duration of each segment.   The upper scarf with orange on it was knit exactly according to the pattern I posted here – on a US #6, 30 stitches across at the widest point.  The lower scarf in browns and grays was knit on a US #7, 28 stitches across at the widest point but otherwise following the logic of the posted pattern exactly.  Each scarf took two skeins of Kureyon.

You’ll notice that in spite of the 28-stitcher having in fact fewer stitches across, it’s a tad wider.  That half inch of difference is entirely due to the different gauge produced by the larger needle.   Surprisingly, the 28-stitch scarf is also about seven inches longer than the one knit on the smaller needle. 

In terms of drape, they are pretty close.  One would think the scarf knit on the US #6 would be stiffer and denser than the one knit on the US #7, but in fact there is very little defference between them.  BOTH are relatively un-supple compared to the Kureopatora original, but that is more a function of the difference between the two yarns rather than a difference among needle sizes.  The heavier and less uniform yarn also had an impact on the amount of "wiggle" right and left in my snakes.  The deformation that makes the snakey shape is less evident in this yarn than in the original, and is the same for both size needles used.  Given the small differences between the two needle sizes  and the extra width/length gained by using the larger needle, I’d recommend the #7 and the 28-stitch width for anyone looking to do a Kureopatora’s Snake scarf from Kureyon. 

Now, how did I like working with the Kureyon?  Not especially.  In spite of hype, this is the first time I’ve used it.  I accept the thick/thin variation and differences between skeins as being part of the yarn’s unique look.  I am less happy with uneven spinning, with some parts so overtwisted that they kink almost uncontrollably, and others so untwisted that they shred into breaking from just the normal action of knitting.  I’m also not fond of the fine grained agricultural dust that I feel between my fingers as I knit (very present in the orange/green scarf) and the abundance of sharp, thorn-like chaff in all four skeins used.  I was also not pleased that one of my skeins had six knots in it (each skein had at least one).  Finally, I find the texture of this yarn is too harsh for next to skin wear.  My scarves are interesting, but are clearly "outside the coat" articles, and not something I’d be comfortable pulling up around my chin muffler style.

And in part to answer the folk who have asked about using yarns with shorter repeats for this pattern, I present the following eyesore, knit for edification only, and shortly to be ripped back:

This particular yarn is a Red Heart acrylic "worsted" in pinks, white, pale blue and gray, picked out for her own projects by Younger Daughter. Because this yarn like so many mass market acrylics  is actually a 16st = 4 inch yarn and not a 20st=4 inch actual worsted, I’m using a US #9 here, and working on 28 stitches across. 

There’s nothing wrong with knitting Red Heart – it’s a very serviceable and inexpensive yarn.  Like any cost/value trade, it has performance and aesthetic strengths and weaknesses.  It’s not particularly soft, although it is more wearable than the Kureyon.  It feels squeaky on the needles.  I don’t like the color set used, but that’s a personal preference item. 

But what makes this horrific isn’t the quality or price of the yarn, it’s the length of the color repeat.  As you can see from the exposed length, color segments last about 8 inches or so before shading into the next one.  Stripes are choppy and colors pool at the edges, giving it a very haphazard and to me overall unattractive look.   For this pattern to show best you need one of two things – a solid color, so that the interest comes from the movement of the ribbing segments and the way they deform, or a variegated yarn in which the color segments run for at least a yard before changing.

Yesterday’s entry on the KFI/Noro Kureopatora Plus
provoked much curiosity about that yarn. What I have is left over from
my Taco Coat. I bought a bag of about 12 balls at a seasonal clearance
sale at my local yarn shop back in 1996. It sat for a half year waiting
for a project idea to ripen. It ended up being the color accent in my
original Taco Coat. The other two yarns used on this project were Cascade Lana d’Oro alpaca blend in black, and Reynolds Tolouse, an ancient black Astrakan textured yarn.

I
used about 9.5 balls of my original 12 Kureopatoras. The 2.5 shown
yesterday are all that remain. I don’t remember the yarn as being
particularly cursed with knots. Maybe one or two balls had a knot in
the whole lot, and no ball had more than one. I do know that at the
time it was available in a couple of color sets, with the one I used
being the most eye-popping. Two others I remember were mixed browns,
khakis and olives; and another that was a set of various blues.

Another
question was on softness and full/felt-ability. Having now tried it, I
can say that there’s enough wool content in this wool/cotton blend to
spit splice. It is possible that it would full. Experimentation would
be called for, although with limited availability I’d prefer not to
spend my yardage doing so. Also, while it is less scratchy than
Kureyon, it’s not Merino soft – not by a long shot. This is an outside
the coat scarf, not something most people would snuggle up next to
under their chin.

All in all, Kureopatora Plus was ahead of its
time. It was sold under the KFI (Knitting Fever) label, not the Noro
brand. It came out well in advance of similar yarns today, with very
little exposure or pattern support compared to its later siblings Silk
Garden or Kureyon. In fact at the time people were rather mystified
about how to use it, and appreciation was limited. As a result it got
added to many people’s stashes but wasn’t knit up. You can still find
it stash aged Kureopatora every now and again on eBay, although I have
to say I rarely see any in the color #982 screaming rainbow mix I’m
using.

Progress on the snake-like scarf:

It
does a bit of the side to side salsa slide than do most other scarves
of this type. The biggest reason for this is my working this up in
ribbing rather than the more usual garter or stockinette stitches.
Ribbing draws in. You can see how it fans out like a lotus flower where
the entrelac attachment "seams" stretch it. I like the effect.

Jury
is still out on whether or not I’ll end up edging this piece. If I do
it will be in a very narrow sawtooth or point edging – small enough
that the colors of the edging will change every point or two. In terms
of yarn consumption so far, I’ve finished the third to half ball I had
left over, and I’ve cracked into the first of my two untouched
Kureopatoras. We’ll see how long the scarf is after I’ve finished most
of that ball. If it’s long enough, I’ll do the edging with the remains
of it plus Ball #2. If not – someone is bound to appreciate a Dr. Who
length rainbow squiggle.