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The Story:
Last week, when we decided to run last-minute hair accessories for this week’s web letter project, Kristen and Cecily sat down with yarn and needles and within a few hours, they had turned out the pretty assortment that you see here.
Kristen, adept at both knitting and crocheting, used three simple crochet stitches to make a ruffled scrunchy. She covered a basic hair elastic by working round it in single crochet—the more single crochets, the more ruffly the scrunchy. For the next round, she worked three half-double crochet stitches into each single crochet and separated the three-some with a chain stitch. On the final round, she worked little picots. Cecily tried it on and wore it around the office—she liked the way it stayed put in her fine hair.
For her colorwork headband, Cecily used a simple three-color slip-stitch pattern. She added ties at the ends to make it adjustable. If you increase to another repeat or two worth of stitches, you can make a wider headband for outdoor wear.
Cecily’s flowers are the result of noodling around with yarn and needles. There’s a good chance that after working a flower or two, you’ll be creating your own blossoms.
The Yarn:
Renaissance — 100% wool
Renaissance is a classic 100% wool yarn shorn from sheep born and bred in the highlands of Peru. Hence, it’s called Highland wool to distinguish it from other specific wool breeds that live and graze in other parts of the world.
Peru is divided into three geographical regions: the coast along the Pacific Ocean, the Andes Mountains (Cordillera de los Andes), and the jungle in the northeast corner. The Peruvian Highlands are the dips and slopes of the Andean mountains that run north to south in the center of the country. The rugged terrain and arid conditions make farming difficult, and most Peruvians who live in the rural Highlands depend on sheep or alpaca or llama for their livelihood.
Renaissance has all the wonderful attributes of any wool yarn—it’s lofty, warm, absorbs moisture, and it’s reasonably soft and very durable, as well.
Renaissance is a 3-ply yarn so it knits up into a smooth, even fabric which shows off textures and color patterns remarkably well. It comes in 34 painterly colors—in 50-gram hanks. Small hanks are good when you want to use lots of colors in a project. And one of the best things about Renaissance is that it felts perfectly.
Where to buy Renaissance.
The Stitches:
There are several ways to knit using different colors in a single project. For quick knitting, stripes and slip-stitch patterns are a good way to go. They’re easy and don’t require charts or a lot of attention. For her headband, Cecily used a simple slip-stitch pattern that creates a textured tweedy fabric. You’ll get a completely different look by using different colors.
When you’re working slip stitches, remember to slip stitches purlwise. That way they’ll be in the correct position for knitting on the next row.
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