Category Archives: Noro Silk Garden

FREEBIE & HACKS & FINISHED Noro Striped Scarf

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Noro Silk Garden Noro Striped Scarf.jpg

Noro Striped Scarf

Yup, I did it, I made ANOTHER Noro Striped Scarf. My creative juices have been syphoned off by other tasks lately, and I just needed a project that’s simple, brainless, but also tactile and lovely. Plus I has some Noro Silk Garden in my personal stash that really, really, really needed to get used.

I used a total of 6 skeins (3 of each colourway) and my scarf is VERY long, it wraps around three times. 4 skeins will make a normal length scarf. I haven’t bothered blocking the scarf, but Noro Silk Garden always enjoys a little bath in Eucalan.

NORO STRIPE HACKS

As far as striping Noro goes, you’ve got a few options:

  1. Alternate the two colours of self-striping yarn. This is what the original pattern does.
  2. Alternate one colour of self-striping yarn by starting it at different parts of the colourway. When you do this you can guarantee that your colours will always match.
  3. Alternate a solid or semi-solid colour with a self-striping colour.

I went with option number 3, using a neutral colour that contrasts with the self-striping yarn. The neutral is Noro Silk Garden 269, so it is technically a self-striping yarn, but the colour shift is so subtle that it is barely noticeable used in this way. Cream is also a secret fix for when you can’t find the right contrast colour, it always makes the other colours ‘pop’.

By the way, you are absolutely allowed to edit the colourway. If there’s a colour in your ball that you absolutely loathe (or just modestly dislike) cut it out and move on. The same thing goes if the colours start to blend together and you lose the stripes, cut one colour and move on up to the next. Life is short, don’t be afraid to jettison recalcitrant colours!

NORO LEFTOVER HACKS

If you’ve got little bits of Noro Silk Garden left-over and possess DPN (double pointed needles) skills, they make excellent little ornaments and decorations. I made a PILE of them last year, they use about 12g of Noro Silk Garden.

Materials

  • Noro Silk Garden: 2 to 3 skeins in each of two colours (a total of 4 to 6 skeins ), we used colour 269 (cream) and a contrasting colour colourway which has been discontinued, colour 381 is the closest to what we used.
  • 4.5mm/US 7 needles
  • tapestry needle
  • FREE Pattern

 

FREEBIE Boom

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Boom

This free wrap/scarf is an easy, mindless knit that will make a very popular gift. It would equally gorgeous with a self-striping yarn like Noro Silk Garden, or a hand-painted yarn like Malabrigo Rios or Manos del Uruguay Alegria Grande.

Yarn Options

Materials

  • 6mm/US10 needles (5.5mm/US9 for Alegria Grande or Rios)
  • tapestry/darning needle
  • FREE Pattern

FREEBIE Campout Mitts

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camp out mitts

Photo: mdcim 

Campout Mitts

I made a pair of these mitts a number of years ago and was super happy with them – they were fast, simple, didn’t use a ton of yarn, and looked great. They worked out so well, in fact, that the mitts seem to have (ahem) acquired a new home. The FREE pattern was originally designed for glorious, colourful Noro Silk Garden, but I also love the way they look with a semi-solid hand dyed yarn like Malabrigo Rios or Manos del Uruguay Alegria Grande. And of course, you can’t go wrong with a soft tweed yarn like Studio Donegal Soft Donegal.

Yarn Options

Materials

 

 

 

FREEBIE & HACKS Noro Stripe Scarf

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Noro Kureopatora Stripe Scarf Pink 2.jpg

Noro Striped Scarf

I’m very pleased with myself, I just finished a Noro Striped Scarf, an unfinished project that languished throughout the summer. A Noro scarf is a simple & effective project when your knitting mojo is feeling a bit below base-line.

I used two skeins of Noro Kureopatora, but the pattern was originally designed and looks gorgeous made with Noro Silk Garden. You can use two different colourways, or use the same colour starting at different parts of the colourway.

Yarn Options

Materials

Noro Kureopatora Stripe Scarf Pink.jpg

Noro Hacks

  • Noro Kureopatora and Silk Garden are both feltable, so you can join two strands with a “Spit Splice” … less ends to weave in!
  • Noro Silk Garden blooms beautifully when knitted at a looser tension. Try going up a needle size, avoid a dense tension, and you’ll receive a treat! There’s a side benefit too – your yarn will go farther!
  • Both Kureopatora and Silk Garden enjoy a bath at the end of your project, blocking them in Eucalan or Soak to soften them up and let them bloom!
  • Sometimes the colours in your two skeins might get to a point where they blend together a bit too much and your stripes look less defined. When this happens I cut one of the yarns and skip ahead in the colourway to the next point where the contrast returns.
  • It’s ok to edit your Noro palette. If you come to a colour that doesn’t work, you don’t like, or there’s just too much of it, feel free to cut it and skip ahead.