Frankenscarf

I've recently started two new scarf projects. Both are part of the Traveling Scarves group on Ravelry. The idea is that a group of people get together and set up a few guidelines or a general theme and start knitting their own scarf. The scarf segment is then sent to the next person on the group list and then that person adds a segment to the scarf. This continues until everyone in the group has worked on the scarf and then the scarf is sent back to its original owner.

You can send additional instructions with your scarf and a notebook so everyone can include information about their individual addition to the scarf. It sounded like an interesting idea so I decided to try it out. When I explained the whole project to Brad - he said that I'd end up with some type of Frankenscarf with everyone using different yarns and techniques. I said that was really kind of the idea, but I kind of like the name so I'm keeping it.

The first group I joined has no special theme or yarn requirements. I did set a few of my own guidelines in the little journal I sent along with the scarf. I asked everyone to use a DK or sport weight yarn similar to what I used in my first segment. I also asked that blues, purples, greens, and browns be the only colors used and that the color shade coordinated with my starting segment.

The yarns I used for the first part of the scarf are Rowan Felted Tweed (green) and Manos Silk Blend. I used the Welting Fantastick pattern from one of the Barbara walker treasuries. I'm really please with how it turned out. It was a little hard to send it off for someone else to finish. But I didn't have enough yarn to knit an entire scarf. I do have enough saved to add a matching piece to the other end once the scarf is returned to me.

There are twelve people in this group so it will take quite a while to get my scarf back. There is about two weeks allotted to knit each segment so I think I'm looking at at least six months before I see the return of this scarf. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

The second group I join has more of a central theme. The idea for this one is to use up leftover sock yarn or other fingering weight yarn. There are 17 people in this group, so I'm not expecting to see my scarf back until late next year.

I started my segment of this scarf with 10 rows of seed stitch from a blackish skein of Socks That Rock. I'm going to send this skein along with my scarf and ask that everyone knit 10 rows of seed stitch after they add their colored segment.

My first segment is knit from some leftover Wollmeise sock yarn. I used another pattern from one of the Barbara Walker Treasuries, but this time opted to try out a cable pattern. This pattern is called the banjo pattern. It was one I hadn't seen and I liked the use of circles so thought I'd give it a try.

So both scarves are now in the mail. It is going to be hard to wait for them but I'll have a bunch of other scarves to see and work on in the meantime.