The Funky Fur Curly Whirly Scarf

Currently, there's a new craze amongst us UK Handknitters. We all seem to be making curly whirly scarves. They can either be knitted or crocheted and there are umpteen variations which makes each one rather interesting in its own right. I chose a knitted version for my first one and I think I followed Yvonne's "mad scarf" method but then used a bit of artistic licence along the way in that I ended up having what must have been thousands of stitches and had to borrow a Denise needle set in order that I could keep extending my needle length! I wanted lots of curliness, you see, in order that the ruffles wouldn't get lost in the fuzziness of the funky fur that I chose to make it with. Now I know that funky fur wouldn't be everyone's choice but I bought loads of it dead cheap in the Designs sale earlier in the year and I thought it would (a) use some of it up and (b) make for a good experiment. After I had cast off (which took an absolute age), I measured the total length of the needles I had used and it came to 127" or 3.22m! Here's a photo of the finished scarf.



I got the interesting two-tone effect by doing the final increase row and cast off row in a contrasting colour. The final increase row I also knitted by holding two strands of the funky fur together to give added definition. This helps to emphasise the curly whirliness. I then reverted to a single strand for casting off. Altogether I used two and a half 50g balls of the gemstone (claret like colour) and almost four 50g balls of the gentian. I had wanted to have it mainly gemstone but, as I had more gentian than gemstone, it worked out the other way around. I had no idea it was going to take quite so much yarn. If anyone wants to make a two tone scarf like this, please bear in mind that the colour that you start with, contrary to what I thought in the beginning, will not end up being the main colour. The colour that is used for the final increase row and cast off will be the main colour. Here's a shot showing the scarf closer up . . . . .


. . . . . and below is a photo of the scarf still on the needles - three circulars worth of them!!! After this photo was taken I had to add another length! Denise needles have now certainly been redeemed in my view and I think I'm going to have to invest in another set after having sold my original ones!

I've got some Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb in the sherbert colourway to make another scarf though I haven't yet decided whether to make a knitted or crocheted one this time or, indeed, which method to use. We'll see!

The postman brought a nice package this morning. MIL would like a clapotis and Kerrie has custom dyed some Hip Knits silk so that I can knit it to MIL's exact colour choice. Isn't that great?!! Below is a photo of the samples provided to Kerrie so that she could try to match as closely as possible for the custom dye.


One couldn't really expect closer than that, could one? Well done, Kerrie! NAYY. Just a very pleased customer!

UPDATE: In the light of my later post, the Funky Fur Curly Whirly Scarf has now been renamed the Funky Fur Curly Whirly "Corkscrew" Scarf.