No. 3 - The Floribunda Curly Whirly Cravat

What I love about the curly whirly scarf is that, once you know the basic principles of its construction, you can use lots of artistic licence and be as creative as you wish! You can make it whatever length you want. You can have it as a slight frill, quite curly, extremely curly, downright vermiform or like a corkscrew as in my funky fur version. You can use up bits of stash to make CWs and, believe me, you could use almost anything! You can experiment with contrasting different textures and colours and you can embellish! Yay for embellishment!! You can add beads as in my Beaded Sherbert or knitted or crocheted flowers as in my No. 3, the Floribunda Curly Whirly Cravat pictured below.


I knitted this one with the skein of Sari Silk that Kerrie of Hip Knits sent me and edged it with some Dewberry Kid Silk Haze I had left over after knitting River and Birch. The knitted floribunda (directions in Nicky Epstein's Knitted Embellishments) has a button I found in my button tin sewn into its centre. Here's another shot.


I always find the resultant loss of photographic quality when photos are uploaded to Blogger a bit disappointing and this is especially the case when the photo depicts something like sari silk, the texture and jewel-like colours of which are lost in any photographic reproduction. If you'd like to see a closer resemblance to how the Floribunda looks in actuality than in the photos above, see here in my Flickr Gallery.

As I only had the one skein of Sari Silk, I didn't think it would be enough for a full length scarf so I cast the number of stitches on accordingly and increased to a point where I thought I had a cravat. However, it wasn't long enough. This is no problem because the beauty of the CW scarf is that, if it's not long enough, you can add to it. I simply made another piece making sure that I had the same amount of curliness and grafted it onto the end of the first piece. It's not noticeable at all! Curly Whirly scarves are also very quick to make. I started this one last night and finished it this morning. I've yet to make a crocheted one but DH has been instructed to bring home a 7mm crochet hook this evening as the largest I have at present is 4mm.

At the weekend I will be setting up a team blog - the Curly Whirly Scarf Blog - so that those interested in making curly whirly scarves can share ideas, tips, patterns, etc, and display photos of their finished creations. If you fancy making a curly whirly or, indeed, have already made one or two and you wish to be a contributor, please email me with your email details so that I can enter them and then Blogger will generate an invitation to you to join the blog. When you accept, you'll be able to post text and photos on the Curly Whirly Scarf Blog and share with us. If you've made one or two already and think that's it, I've been there, done that, think again. Think of all the different variations you could come up with and how creative you could be. It's a great chance for those who've been too nervous to do anything but follow a pattern in the past (which is mostly what I've done) to start thinking outside the box. For those who haven't made one yet, the CWS Blog will have links to patterns and other resources in the sidebar and you'll be able to make use of the ideas and tips that others are sharing. You don't even need to go out and buy some yarn for it necessarily - I'm sure you'll have something you can use in your stash. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone's unique creations!

If anyone is interested in how I made the Floribunda, I made notes as I went along and plan to compile it as a pattern as if it was made in one piece to avoid the grafting I had to do due to not knowing how far the sari silk would go, etc. The beauty of the Floribunda is that it can be made from just one skein of sari silk plus any oddment from your stash that you think might make for an interesting edging and embellishment. I will post it here and include a link to the pattern on the Curly Whirly Scarf blog when I set it up.

UPDATE: As promised, and for those interested, I've gone back to my notes and compiled the directions for the Floribunda Curly Whirly Cravat.

Materials:

1 x 200g skein sari silk
1 x 25g ball of Kid Silk Haze/Spray/Night or something else for edging and flower embellishment
Long 7mm circular needle (I used the two longest lengths in Denise set together)
Button or bead for centre of flower

Directions:

Row 1 Cast on 50 sts and knit every stitch.
Row 2 Knit into front and back of every stitch. (100 sts)
Row 3 Knit every stitch
Row 4 Knit into front and back of every stitch. (200 sts)
Row 5 Knit every stitch.
Row 6 Knit into front and back of every stitch. (400 sts)
Rows 7 to 9 Knit every stitch.
Row 10 Join in Kid Silk Haze double stranded and knit, purl and knit again into first four stitches. Then knit into front and back of every stitch until last four stitches. Knit, purl and knit again into last four stitches. (808 sts)
Row 11 Knit one more row in Kid Silk Haze.
Cast off loosely in Kid Silk Haze.

Flower Corsage Embellishment

You can use any flower as embellishment. I used Flora Bunda in Nicky Epstein's book "Knitted Embellishments" and sewed a brooch pin to the back of it. The brooch pin then serves the double purpose of keeping the cravat fixed in place whilst attaching the corsage to it.