Throwback Thursday: The Slippery Scarf

One of my best friends, Emily, is also a knitter although at first she was more of a crocheter. And she was sensitive to (if not allergic to) wool. I decided to knit her a scarf, which meant I couldn't use wool, but I also didn't want to use acrylic. So I got some Knit Picks Shine Worsted, which is a blend of cotton and "Modal® natural beech wood fiber (rayon)." Shine is definitely an apt name for the yarn. Not only did it have a sheen to it, it also was quite slippery. That meant that it felt nice and it was actually fairly nice to work with overall. But then it came time to weave in the ends.

And that's when the scarf changed from a pleasant project to a nightmare. Even though I wove in the ends like I always do, which seems fairly secure, this time the ends did not feel secure. I just knew that as soon as I clipped the leftover tail the woven in end would just pop right out and I had horrible images running through my head of the scarf just unraveling as my friend wore it. I was a bit desperate.

And in my desperation I did something that seems rather shocking--I used glue on my knitting. Yup. I took some fabric glue and put a little dot at the end of the yarn where I clipped it. I thought that it would help keep the end in place and the scarf wouldn't unravel. And it's true. It did do that. But there was one thing I didn't take into account--the glue dried and created a hard little lump. Oops. Well, at least it didn't unravel!!

Before weaving in the ends--a traitorous end can be seen in the upper right corner

(The pattern was the Rainy Day Scarf by Beth Collins, which produced a nice undulating effect. Also, it's amazing how pregnancy can change a woman's body--after having her daughter, Emily tried wool again and the sensitivity/allergy seems to have gone away. She's now a very happy wool knitter.)