How to Minimize Curling of your Malabrigo Waffles Scarf

I’ve received a few questions on how to stop the Malabrigo Waffles scarf from curling. Since it is a stockinette based pattern, the edges do want to curl in as you are knitting and wearing.

Blocking is the key here. I’ll explain my favorite way of blocking below, but your preferred method should work just as well.

To block, I use the “steam shot” button on my iron. Find a long heat and water resistant surface, like your bathroom floor covered in towels. Lay the scarf out and flatten as much as possible by hand. If you like, pin the edges out flat. Pass the iron slowing over the surface, hitting the steam shot button repeatedly as you go. Do not touch the iron directly to the scarf. I typically don’t pin the scarf down, but use my hand to flatten and smooth as I go. Be careful not to pull it so straight that you lose the waffle texture.
Allow the scarf to dry and cool before moving.

While it is impossible to completely prevent curling, this tames the curl to a manageable (and for me, comfortable) level while wearing.

Finished: Bunnies!

These cute guys are modified from Christine Manitz's Easter Bunny pattern. The original pattern calls for the bunnies to be felted, but since most of my felting experiments end up slightly misshapen I wanted to make these bunnies non-felted to retain their cuteness.

For the most part I followed the pattern as written. I reduced the needle size drastically to make a nice firm fabric that had some body and didn't let the stuffing show though. One of the only changes I made was to switch the 'knit into the front and back' increases to 'knit into the row below' increases since I didn't want the little bar that is created with the kfb to show on my unfelted bun. I also shortened the length of the body, neck, and head since I wasn't losing any length in felting.

I wanted to be able to play around with the positioning of ears a little, so I bent some thin wire into ear shapes and inserted them.





Finally, I wanted to make sure the bunnies stood up by themselves without falling over. This was accomplished by sewing a little bean bag (filled with dry lentils - I felt they were heavier than rice per volume) into the base.



Cutting the felt.
One half fits the interior diameter of the bun base,
the other is larger to form a pocket for the lentils.


Filling the base.
The lentil are a snack for my hub's
spiny-tailed lizard. Don't tell her I stole some!


The completed UFO-shaped base.



Sewing the base into the bun, so the flat side is down.


Oh and I pinked up the ears with a little of my favorite eyeshadow, Bobbi Brown Pink Sugar. I tried twice to embroider a face but my pathetic skills actually make the bunnies less cute. So plain it is!

And just in case there are not quite enough photos in this thread I'll show you a few more bunnies I made for Easter dessert with the family.




Wilton cake pan



Red Velvet Bunny Cakes



A pastry chef I am not, but they were delicious!

Spinning: Color Experimentation

As I've mentioned, I took a spinning class a few years ago and during the class I used a ball of roving that had four colors carded next to each other, so there was very little mixing of colors at the joins.





During the class, I decided to divide the colors and spin the yarn so when it was plied each ply would be a different color than the one it was next to. I finished two skeins of it in class and had the ball of roving photographed above leftover. This sat in my closet until last week when I was playing with my new wheel and decided to see what else I could do with it. I came up with two other ideas to test, separating the colors as before but plying them so the colors matched up and spinning all of the colors together randomly. I knit up little swatches of each, and I feel that this is a good starting point for future experiments in spinning with color. (Or, at least a good starting point to know what my finished yarn is going to look like.)


~Skein 1, completed in class, was spun by dividing the colors in a length of roving and spinning each one individually in order and then repeating. (I don't remember exactly, but think it was pink, green, yellow, orange.) I had two bobbins, and they were plied together so the colors hit randomly.



Skein 1

closeup

knitted swatch


~Skein 2 was spun by dividing the colors of the entire length of roving I was going to use and then spinning all of the pink first, then all of the green, etc. I had one bobbin and Navajo plied it to make sure the colors matched up with each other.



Skein 2

closeup

knitted swatch


~Skein 3 was spun without separating the colors. I pulled off a length of roving and drafted it without caring which colors were being pulled in. This was also Navajo plied, but only because I only had one bobbin.




Skein 3

closeup

knitted swatch


I think it is very interesting to see the effects of these different techniques. I have a few more ideas that I want to try if I ever find roving prepped the same way again. But at least I have the beginnings of an idea on how to spin striping or Trekking XXL style yarn.