stitch ya neck out

some of you may have read jacqueline's post a few days ago about a little swap we had planned. we decided to knit each other a scarf from the scarf style book, the twist being that we send the other yarn for the scarf we want to have made. in this way, i will get the chance to try out muench's touch me yarn and make jac a vintage velvet scarf - a yarn which intrigues me but which i probably wouldn't get for myself. in return, i will send her some lovely norwegian sisik from dale, so that she can knit me a gorgeous here and there cables scarf.

anyway, jac's post spurred some interest and when she suggested we try organising a bigger swap, who am i to deny people this fantastic opportunity!? so, here are the details - which i have nicked (with permission) from jac's blog:

welcome to what we hope will become:

"stitch ya neck out"
- necking with friends -

at this point we are really just want to know if anyone wants to participate and what they think of our ideas so far.

how it will work is that you will nominate a scarf and then purchase the yarn you would like for this scarf - and send it off to your scarf maker! in order to join us in this merry fun you need to have your own copy of scarf style. iIf you choose to nominate a different scarf pattern you would like to have made, you will need to purchase an original copy of the pattern and send it off with your yarn. your scarf maker and the person you will be receiving yarn from will not be one and the same. we are going to try and mix it up a bit. we really wanted to try and make it as even and fair as possible and make sure people's personal wool fetishes were catered for. hence why you will be purchasing your own yarn. people are often less fussy about what yarn they put on their feet in comparison to what they wear around their neck. personally i have to wear soft yarns around my neck because otherwise i am scratching like a madwoman.

in order to make this fair we have organised a few guidelines for the swap. because we are trialling this to see how it goes, we have decided to limit scarves to an established pattern from either the scarf style book or knitty.com - but not every pattern will be available. what we are really trying to achieve is to make it a fair exchange. so we have narrowed it down to the following list of scarves.

scarf style scarves:

• here and there cables (using 50 or 56 stitches at most and no more than 5 balls of recommended or equivalent yarn)
• forbes forest
• zigzag stripes
• interlocking balloons
• stripes and bobbles
• misty garden
• vintage velvet
• backyard leaves
• turtleneck shrug
• midwest moonlight
• blue collar
• ruffles

knitty scarves:

• embrace
• wavy
• loopy and luscious
• branching out

this list is by no means exhaustive but it has been chosen to try and cover off beginners and advanced knitters alike. however, it is pretty much the limit as far as what we think is fair and reasonable from knitty or scarf style.

if anyone has a huge fear about knitting some of the scarves on the list, when you sign up can you please email us with your fear - and we will make sure you don't get someone who wants that particular scarf or scarves made. we are imagining that the yarn sending will occur in early august with the scarves due back by the end of october. we will come up with a firmer list of dates as soon as we know if anyone is interested. (alternatively this whole idea could be a big flop before it even gets off the ground).

ok - so i think that is it in a nutshell. i am sure i have left things out but we will cover that off as we go. so if you are interested in this, please send us the following information in an email to stitchyaneckoutATgmailDOTcom.

• name
• blog url
• e-mail address

if we have enough people interested we will go ahead and formalise it and get you guys to submit what scarf you want made, what scarves you definitely don't want to make....etc etc etc.

originally, we came up with the swap between ourselves so that we could try new yarns that we wouldn't usually have access too, and have a bit of fun doing it. so we are really not sure if this will work on mass or even if it is something people are interested. either way, we plan to have a bit of fun with it and hope others will too.

finally, if anyone out there is into blog button making, we are open to all suggestions and nominations!

hope to see you there!