"Thrum" originally referred to the short lengths of waste yarn leftover after woven cloth was cut off the loom. In the spirit of necessary thriftiness, craftspeople would find a variety of uses for these thrums--stuffing pillows and mattresses, and after a while, knitting them into mittens and hats to provide an extra layer of warmth.
Each thrum, or short length of yarn, would be worked together with the main knitting yarn as a single stitch, with the ends of the thrum left hanging inside the mitten to provide insulation. Lovely! Except that people soon discovered that the yarny thrums could catch on fingers, and even fray.
The second type of thrum works much better, and has been a tradition for generations in the chilly-but-gorgeous environs of Newfoundland and Labrador up here in Canada. This type of thrum is actually roving, or unspun sheep's wool, separated into wisps, which are then knit into the stitches along with the working yarn as before. The ends of the fleece form little poufy pillows inside your mittens, and your fingers start thanking you the minute a pair of thrummed mittens is on your hands.
Basically, you're making a sheepskin for the inside of your mittens. With the wide variety of dyed wool roving available these days, you can choose a rainbow of colors from which to make your thrums. (You can purchase unspun roving at many local yarn shops; or take a trip to your local fibre festival!)Visit The Yarn Harlot's blog to read about thrumming...
We dubbed this scarf ‘before & after’ because it’s so ugly (truly!) before it’s blocked and so beautiful after. Knitted on the bias, this light, airy scarf has the smooth simplicity of stockinette stitch without all the rolling at the edges. The nearly sheer fabric is perfect for warmer days—layer two for coziness.One ball will make this scarf.
Fresco is a smooth and even 3-ply sport weight yarn. The plies are twisted together tightly enough to make a firm, springy yarn, but not so tightly that the yarn loses its lofty, soft hand. The fiber blend—wool (for warmth and strength), alpaca (for loft and sheen), and a bit of angora (to provide a soft halo)—makes a yarn that’s warm, soft, and slightly fuzzy.
Light as air ……….. “Airius”
This very easy crescent shaped shawl is worked in one piece, from the top down.
The Garter Stitch shawl body consists of a single row repeat stitch pattern.
The easy lace border is joined to the shawl body as it is worked.
The border is written in both word and charted forms.
Two strands of luxury yarn are held together and knitted as one throughout.
This design can be worked by either using 2 balls of the same colour or have fun as I did and use 2 completely different colours and make your own unique colour way, it will be truly unique and beautiful!!Pattern: Airius (available for purchase on Ravelry)
Beth and I watched Homeland from Sunday night. Oh my goodness. How are we going to wait until Sunday to find out what happens? I am really enjoying this season. Just wish it was on every night :)Just over a year ago, I won a prize that you were offering to name your new colour way for the "Color Play Mohair Wrap" - I named it "Royal Botanical Gardens". Rather than have you ship my prize to me (a kit to make a Color Play Mohair Wrap), I choose to drive to your store and pick out which kit I would like. I choose the Royal Botanical Gardens colour way and needless to say, I returned home with more than my prize yarn pack!!Every Fall, my husband and I return to our boat in Virginia and then cruise to warmer waters on our SV Oneday during the winter months. Last year, I couldn't resist taking along my prize pack of yarn to add to my ever growing on board stash (just in case I may run out of yarn!!). One day in February, I crawled into one of the boat back room yarn storage bins and pulled out the 4 balls of Rowan Kid Silk Haze Stripe. Instead of knitting the Color Play Mohair Wrap and since I'm never able to do what I'm supposed to do, I decided to put the yarn and myself through our paces and ended up designing and knitting the prototype for Airius. I absolutely loved the way that 2 different shades of this yarn just magically worked together and produced such a wonderful colour effect yarn. When completed, I sent the finished shawl off to Patty McGuire in Virginia Beach for a professional photo shoot. The resulting photos were absolutely amazing but there was still more work to do on Airius. So, with spread sheet in hand and because I wanted to create a pattern that used just 2 balls of this wonderful yarn without an annoying amount of leftovers, I tweaked Airius until she satisfied what I had in mind for her. Blocking on a sailing vessel presents a major problem, so I waited until we returned to Ontario at the end of April this year to complete this final touch. I then packed up Airius and sent it South to www.pattymacphotos.com in Virginia Beach VA for a professional photo shoot.
