Latest novelty yarns offer dazzle, dash Finished product in the eyes of the knitter

You see them everywhere – scarves knit of the latest generation of novelty yarns: eyelash yarns, furry yarns, yarns with names such as Salsa, Plume, Zap, Lazer Sequin and Flirt, yarns with metallic threads, yarns that look like ribbons. Yarns that knit up to look like bad hair days.

Monique Gibouleau of Bangor is delighted with the scarf her mother knit in a furry electric lime-green novelty yarn, an attention-getting color and texture if ever there was one.

“It looks like a squashed Muppet, don’t you think?” Gibouleau asked. Yeah, it does. Which is part of the yarn’s charm, inviting us to make playful leaps into metaphor as we stretch to compare it to something we understand. Like the stuff you get from sheep, for example.

A friend recently gave me several skeins of Katia Hippie yarn. It’s not yarn like you ordinarily think of it. It consists of 3 or 4 inches of finely woven pearl gray cord – sort of like a crochet chain done with a No. 13 hook, impossibly fine – then there’s a tuft of wool fluff, then another few inches of the cord, then the fluffy stuff. The fluff isn’t uniform in amount and some of it fluffs more the other bits of fluff. It looks a little like what’s left after a very tiny sheep squeezed under a very tiny barbed-wire fence.

What the yarn makes me think of, in a humorous sort of way, when it’s knit on size 11 needles is, well, road kill. It’s one of the reasons I like it so much – and its ability to look like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Novelty yarns are very surprising that way, not only when they come out looking like squashed Muppets or road kill, but when they knit up to resemble liquid jewels or fairy wings or airy evening rose clouds as some novelty yarns do.

Novelty yarns are made of a variety of fibers and blends of fibers – acrylic, wool, rayon, metallic thread, silk and cotton. They may be furry, fuzzy, flat like ribbons, or they resemble an escapee from the ragbag such as the Katia Hippie yarn with which I’m experimenting.

Dazzle and dash are the hallmarks of novelty yarns, so it’s a good idea at first to think in terms of stockinette or garter stitch instead of more intricate patterns. Try casting on 15 or 20 stitches with size 9, 10 or 11 needles and work a few rows to see how it looks.

Well, don’t just sit there, hie thee to your nearest yarn shop, grab a skein of something funky, and knit.

Snippets

Needlework skills are at your fingertips when you take advantage of Bangor Adult Education classes at Bangor High School.

Learn knitting, crocheting and needlepoint 7-9 p.m. Mondays, Feb. 2-March 24 or March 31-April 19.

A strip quilting class for beginners is set for 6:30-9 p.m. Thursdays, Feb. 6-March 27 or April 3-May 22.

A handstitching class for quilters is scheduled 6:30-9 p.m. Mondays, Feb. 2-March 24 or March 31-May 19.

Learn how to do rug braiding 6:30-9 p.m. Mondays, Feb. 3-March 24 or March 31-May 19.

The cost for the classes is $30, $40 for nonresidents. For information, call 941-6310 or visit the Web at www.bangoradulted.org.

Orono Adult and Community Education has a quilt class for beginners 6:30-9 p.m. Tuesdays starting Jan. 28. The cost of the class is $35. Students purchase their own supplies. Patricia Cody is the instructor. For information, call 866-4119.

Chevron lace pattern

Experience level: Intermediate.

Multiple of 6 stitches. Very nice with mohair yarn on size 8 knitting needles. Makes a pretty scarf.

Cast on 6, 12, 18 or 24, etc. stitches.

Row 1: *Wrap yarn around needle to make 1 stitch, k2, k2 together, k2 *, repeat across.

Rows 2: Purl (including ‘made’ stitches).

Row 3: *K2, k2 together, k2*, repeat across.

Row 4: Wrap yarn around needle to make 1 stitch, purl across (including ‘made’ stitches).

Repeat these four rows for pattern.

Editor’s Note: By Hand appears each Tuesday in the Style section. Ardeana Hamlin can be reached at the Bangor Daily News at 990-8153 or at ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.