Yarn Addiction Thursday: More I-cord

Since I found it so relaxing to make i-cord with the mill, I decided to make another scarf. It’s based on the same La Droguerie project. This time, instead of using pom poms, I sewed tiny beads between the cords to join the strands. I used old beads and pendants that I had left over from my abandoned attempts at jewelry making. The pompoms were fun, but I like this project, too. I feel like I’m wearing a piece of jewelry.

Mostly I used stash wool, but I picked up some more at La Droguerie. Sigh… I’m such a wool addict. But at least 60% of the wool is from stuff I already had. I think this scarf is a lot more elegant than the pom-pom scarf. Using beads instead of pompoms is more subtle anyway. Another change I made was to sew the beads closer together than the pompoms so that the gaps between strings are smaller. As much as I enjoy making the cord, I’m starting to find the sewing up part tedious. This is a problem since I already made more i-cords for another scarf. I suppose it’s now a problem for later.

Scarf tip details

Another great stash-busting factor were the silver beads I used for the ends. I had to buy a few more blue beads, but I really tried to use up what I had. As a stash project, this worked out not too badly.  The finished product is a bit heavier so I was a bit worried my hard work was for naught. I hate even a slight pull around my neck so I was relieved to find that if I took a bit of care on how I wrapped it, I didn’t fell any pull.  

Materials
Wool
Cashmere 95%/nylon5%: Cashmere Gold by Rich More (stash)
Alpaca 100%: Alpaga Teint by La Droguerie (1/2 stash, 1/2 new
Silk 50%/alpaca 50%:  Soyeuse by La Droguerie (stash)
Merino: Daily by Okadaya (stash)
Notions
End Beads:
silver and moonstone, old single earrings or bought randomly over the years
Other Beads: La Droguerie and stash
Connecting Beads:  La Droguerie (new)

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Yarn Addiction Thursday: I-cord Scarf Frenzy

Adapted from a La Droguerie pattern

On a visit to La Droguerie in Shibuya Seibu, I saw an interesting scarf made of i-cord, pompoms and flowers made of felt cut-outs. The title on the pattern is “l’écharpe” which I think just means scarf. Not so helpful as a title perhaps. To make the scarf you use an i-cord knitting mill. The one I bought at La Droguerie came in a plain brown box, so while I can’t be sure about the brand, it looks like the Prym Knitting Mill.

I couldn’t find enough felt flower cut outs to match the wool colors I chose so I decided to change the pattern from flowers to dots, polka-dots and spheres.

I found little felted balls of wool at Okadaya and bought some to give more color variety and because they were cheaper than the ones I got at La Droguerie. I also bought a felt ball maker so that I could make a variety of sizes of felt balls for the ends of the strings. Not surprisingly, making felt spheres got old really fast. I suppose the method is less painful that needle felting (ha ha, there’s some kind of pun in there) but work is work and time is time.When I finally had all my pieces made, I safety pinned it together and started sewing. I sewed each pompom on individually. It might have taken less work to run the thread through the strings, but I felt that would limit the amount of stretch inherent in the yarn. Again, after a while, it became tedious. It helped that I was able to take it in the car and work on it during road-trips.

The pompoms are sewn to between to i-cords in a staggered pattern to create the scarf fabric.

The effect is like a fish-net when expanded.

Finishing touches on the ends of the strings. Felt discs were glued on to two discs sandwiching the string end and sewn shut.

I always think that adding embellishments will be the fun part. And when I get to that stage and I’m just impatient for it to be done. I did enjoy doing to color selection and organization for the felt circles and spheres for the string ends. I think it gets stressful because at this stage, even tiny mistakes affects how the work looks. I’m not great with a needle and thread so I had to redo this part often to get even stitches.

But then, voila! Finally, it is done.

Materials:
Tools:
i-cord knitting mill
felt-ball maker (Okadaya)
fabric glue
Wool
Sunaturelle
felting wool 100% Merino
Notions
Velvet pompoms (from La Droguerie)
wool pompoms
thread and needle
felt circle cut outs