Tube scarf

To go with the wristwarmers I eventually made a scarf, which I call the tube scarf for two reasons: firstly, a lot of it was knitted on the tube. Second, it is in stocking stitch, so it rolls itself up into a tube. This was a deliberate decision, as the wristwarmers are tubular themselves, and in stocking stitch. 

I wanted a long, skinny scarf that would be more decorative than warm. It started off like this: 

But this was obviously too short, so I carried it on for quite a bit longer, as you can see in this picture of the finished thing.

  

The finishing touch was a stretchy garter-stitch toggle to hold it together, decorated with crocheted flowers. It doesn't really show, but the flowers have 3 layers of petals, so are satisfyingly three-dimensional.  

Inspiration

Here are a couple of things I've found to be really inspirational recently. 

The great thing about blogs is that someone somewhere is doing something you'd never imagined. This selvedge project is amazing. God knows how long she has been hoarding selvedges for. I usually throw mine away (although apparently they're very good for waist stays as they don't give or stretch). Not only has she collected them all up, not only has she done something with them, but she's done something amazing with them. Kudos. 

Secondly, this is from December 2008 Livingetc. Apparently designer Natalia Pepe knitted wool flowers and stitched them onto a wool base. From what I can see of the flowers in the photo they look crocheted to me, but still, that's a quibble. Available to snap up for a mere £3,900. I've no idea what size it is, but for four grand I want it to be big. Very big. 

What I love about this is that it could be a fantastic way of using up bits and pieces of your yarn stash. The flowers are simple 5-petal single-layered things. It could take forever to get this many flowers together, but each flower would be the work of a few spare moments on the tube. At the very least it has inspired me not to throw away the little scraps at the end of a project.