Scarfscape Started

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well! We're continuing to enjoy our summer. Our weather has been good -- some hot days and some cooler days. It's really nice to have a mix! 

This week I started a new project -- the Scarfscape scarf designed by Laura Nelkin. I've been wanting to do some knitting and then this project came in the mail and it fit the bill. So I cast on and started knitting away.

Scarfscape

It's hard to see in the picture because of the darkness of the yarn, but this scarf starts with a short beaded binding.

Scarfscape - Beaded binding

Then you knit a long bias strip. We're using a beautiful color-changing yarn so the bias strip will change from purple to blue by the time we get to the other side.

Scarfscape - Color-changing Yarn

We'll finish the bias strip with another section of beaded binding, but this time the beads will be purple since the yarn will be blue by then. Then we'll pick up along the long edge of the scarf and knit a lace border that will take us through the greens, yellows and oranges in the yarn. The yarn is a soft camel/silk mix that feels wonderful in my hands and will create a really drapey scarf. This is the second project in Laura's 2025 N-Club. In this club, we get three bigger projects scattered through the year. I didn't really like the first project this year, so I'll probably just keep the yarn for another project. It's still fun to get these surprise projects throughout the year! 

This week I also decided to make a new bag. We had our English Paper Piecing (EPP) group meeting on Friday and the first rosette in my La Passacaglia project has gotten large enough that I had to fold it to get it into my bag for our meeting last month. I don't like folding these pieces. It just feels messy to me. So I decided to make a new, bigger Project Bag from the pattern by ByAnnie.  I had already made the largest size in the pattern and this was the bag that was too small for my rosettes, so I measured my large rosette (adding on the length needed for the last round that will complete the rosette), added a couple of inches for insurance and did the math to make a bag of the desired size. 

New Project Bag

It's a very large bag (about 28" square) so the jury is still out on how practical it will be to use. But it fits the rosette perfectly!

New Project Bag With Rosette Inside

I took the bag to our meeting last week and it was definitely a bit floppy, but it was really nice to work on the rosette without any folds from the bag. The La Passacaglia pattern has four large rosettes and then a bunch of smaller rosettes so I think I'll probably use this bag while working on the large rosettes, then I'll switch to my smaller bag when working on the smaller rosettes and then just keep the finished rosettes in this bag. La Passacaglia is a very long-term project, so I'm fine with having made a bag specifically for this project. And, while we're talking about La Passacaglia designed by Willyne Hammerstein, I made some more progress on my rosette at our meeting.

La Passacaglia

I finished adding another round to the rosette and started basting the pieces for the next round to the paper templates. This next round will be dark purple stars, like the green stars after the smaller black round. I've cut the fabric for all of the star points, but still need to pick the fabric for the star centers and the diamonds that separate the stars. It will be exciting when this first rosette is finished! But that's still a ways down the road since these rounds are getting really big!

I also made some more progress on my current cross-stitch project -- Flying Beauties. 

Flying Beauties

I got some of the straight stitches done on the butterfly on the right. I really love how these small stitches really bring the picture to life! 

Finally, I got myself a new toy -- a Brother ScanNCut. With this machine, I can scan an applique shape and have the machine cut it for me, much more neatly than I can cut it myself. It's certainly not something that I need (I can cut the shapes out by hand), but I think it will be nice to play with and to get better, smoother shapes for my applique.  It comes with a sample project -- a little gift box made out of cardstock.

Cardstock Gift Box

It's hard to see since the cardstock is such a dark color, but the gift box has a design drawn on it in pen and then is cut out from the cardstock. It was definitely very easy to make this little project. I'm hoping to play around with using it to cut some appliques this week to see how that works. One of the presenters at our quilt guild meeting demonstrated how easy it was to scan an applique, clean up the scan, cut out the applique, create a file to sew the edges of the applique on her embroidery machine then move the embriodery file over to her sewing machine and finish the applique. I don't have any current plans to get the embroidery module for my sewing machine, but I did get the machine with that option so I could change my mind in the future. But I was intrigued by the ease of cutting the appliques and decided to splurge on one of these for myself for my birthday. I think it will be fun to play with!

Nancy