Warm Noggins

Have you ever heard of a noggin?  I think my dad used to use that word, as in "use your noggin" meaning to use my brain.   I had to look it up in the online etymology dictionary.  Here's what I found: 

1620s, "small cup, mug," later of the contents of such a vessel, "small drink" (1690s), a word of unknown origin, possibly related to Norfolk dialectal nog "strong ale." OED considers that the similar Celtic words are "no doubt" from English. Informal meaning "head" is attested by 1866 in American English.

I could use a small drink today, while protesters are storming the People's House.  

I've been working on a scarf since the beginning of December. It is off the machine now and I am contemplating the finishing I may want to do.  Possibly a row of bind-off stitches (chain stitch) on reverse side to add stability and stop rolling, or possibly a hand-crocheted edging, or possibly a machine trim like a pie crust edge. 

The materials for the scarf were "A box of Goats" from the Fuzzy Goat local yarn store in Thomasville, Georgia. It was an Advent box, with a gift for each day of December. 15 of the days were mini-skeins of Emma's yarn "Teenie-Tinies" in some luscious colors.  I decided to add in a standard-sized skein of 100 % superwash merino in the same weight from Carodan Farms.  You can find the yarn info under my projects on Ravelry - username is brightmeadow.  I absolutely love both of these yarns, they are so soft they feel like a pima cotton T-shirt, and they have a sheen that makes the scarf gleam as if it was gilded. 

The LYS provided a pattern for a bias, linen-stitch scarf.  I wanted to knit on the machine, and linen-stitch is one of the few stitches which can't easily be duplicated on the machine.  After some thought, I decided to knit a tuck stitch scarf using one of the built-in stitches on my KH-930.  

I did not realize when I started how hard it would be to keep track of which row I was on in the event of a yarn snag or fault to record a row properly.  I had to rip out rows several times to get back to a known point. I was not using a color changer, and every two rows I had to change the yarn in the feeder to the main color or contrast color.  By the time I had knitted about 10 of the mini-skeins, the scarf was getting very long and I was getting very tire.  The last few colors were more intense, so I knitted fewer rows.  

I will be using the remaining yarn to knit fingerless mitts when I get some other projects done.  

The reverse of the scarf has no floats, because it is tuck, not fairisle.  It actually looks pretty on its own. 

Depending on how I tie the scarf, the front or back may show. 

Now that this project is off the machine, I have some additional projects in mind.  First is to knit a hat for my grandaughter.  I was told her coat was dark red, like Anna's in the movie Frozen.  I asked her if she wanted snowflakes or an animal knitted in as a design, and she said snowflakes.  

I knitted a swatch. 

 

It turns out, though that her coat is really more purple and pink.  So the swatches above will be for a different garment, and I will have to find some pink and purple yarn and make new swatches. 

 

I also have orders for hats with bicycles on them. Some need to be "Celeste" or Bianchi blue.  Some should be pink. Some should be green and white.  And some are up to me.  

  

I've washed and dried the swatches, and have been renewing my acquaintance with DesignaKnit 9 to integrate stitch patterns with garment layouts.  I want a border of bicycles, not a repeating, tiled, design.   

I was somewhat surprised to find that although all the yarns are 2/24 acrylic, the gauge is slightly different for each swatch.  The blue is actually 80% acrylic and 20% angora.  The white is 80% acrylic and 20 % nylon.  The red and white in earlier swatch was 2/24 acrylic, and the gauge is different than the yellow/gray hats I made a few weeks ago, which were also 2/24 acrylic.