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Exhibit A: The Branching Out scarf from Knitty is clearly awesome, despite being knitted by a total lace n00b.

Exhibit B: I do too use that yoga mat! (Just because it’s for blocking knitting projects and not yoga should not be held against me.)

I frogged the mohair sequel. Although I’m considering trying in another kind of yarn. Still, the camel is so pretty and has such nice drape maybe I’ll just dye a couple of skeins and knit another one.

Someone emailed me and asked what kind of brush I use on camel to create the halo. There are ceramic brushes that can be found at a tailoring supply store for about $15 (or $6 if you get the uber cheap ones with the plastic nubbles) they look like a vegetable brush but instead of bristles have a washboard ripple — that being said, I didn’t feel like digging though my supplies to get one out so I used a 4×8 inch piece of bubble wrap that I rolled up like a jelly roll and rubbed on the front of the scarf prior to blocking.

For a higher nap (or if you have a wool dress coat with a shiny bottom area) there are dry brushes with actual bristles, but they are too aggressive to use on most knitted fabric. Honestly I think those brushes are a waste of money, it’s much better for people just to get into the habit of using a coat check when they go inside and not sitting on wet things in their nice dress coats.
Anyway I love being a know-it-all so if you have a question you can email me wendy (at) yarnporn.com and I’ll try to answer (or I’ll ask a real expert and let you know what they say.)

I guess I should also mention that boiling camel isn’t the same as boiling wool. Camel down doesn’t felt, and boiling it isn’t terribly complicated– you put a pot of water on the stove, when it boils remove it from the heat, get your fabric wet with cold water first, lower it into the water slow enough to keep from splashing yourself, count to 5, and then pull it out and let it cool on a towel before squeezing the excess water from it (it’s a good idea to have a large clean pot handy just for the cooling down time.) You can flip it around every so often to check the temperature and if you like to fuss with things. After that you can treat it like any other hand wash garment.

You don’t really have to boil camel if you aren’t going to brush it, but if you are it’s a good idea even with commercial yarns because of the way the fibers twist a little back and forth when being knit or woven, boiling helps them slip into place in the final garment better. Some people like to add a little borax, salt, baking soda, or potash into the bath– I will use a little laundry borax if the camel has an intolerable chlorine smell (from the dehairing process) but most of the time plain old tap water is best.

My package still hasn’t come in the mail, and the mail carrier faked me out today too– there was a box! But it was just some model that Matt had coming to him and that made me feel sad and dissatisfied. And that lead to me frogging the mohair scarf, and fantasizing about making a scarf out of yak or spinning some cashmere clouds or dying and carding copious amounts of silk noil into other fibers.