Lion Brand Notebook ®
Here, three colors of LB Collection ® Angora Merino
are chosen to reflect three different moods.Knitting can incite a lot of feelings — frustration over slipped stitches, joy at a completed piece, or even fear at an overwhelming yarn stash! For most, knitting is a way of unwinding at the end of a long day, or taking some time out of our schedules to focus on “me-time.”
One of my most anticipated movies this summer is “Inside Out”, Pixar’s take on the emotions that “live” inside everyone’s head, and how they work together. With this concept in mind, I set out to find knitting projects based on moods, and found a really fantastic project!
Mood Scarves are a conceptual knitting project that take patience and reflection. Yarn colors are chosen based on what feelings you’ve decided to track, with each color corresponding to a specific feeling.
The idea is to develop the project over a set amount of time — maybe it’s just a season, or the entire year! At the end of the project, you can look back at your work and see your feelings reflected.
Jem Weston shows her asymmetric mood scarf. Pattern here.*
The pattern? Knit 2 rows in the color reflecting your feelings for the day. That’s it!
Of course, a little guidance goes a long way. Simple patterns, where changing yarn colors is called for, are good outlines for which to start out a project.
| Knit Left Bank Scarf | Knit Kaitlyn Cowl | Knit Loop Scarf |
There’s so much freedom in a project like this. Picking colors, picking the type of stitch, picking a time to reflect on… it goes on! Since the project is so personal, no two scarves will ever end up identical.
What do you reflect on when you knit? What colors would you use to track your mood? Share with us in the comments below!
* Not a Lion Brand Pattern.
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Alice Wright
Totally love the idea of a mood scarf! Jem Weston’s one is lovely, an asymmetric scarf is very appealing to me, and recording your mood every day is a great idea. My Mum used to have a large paper tree on a huge sheet of paper and it had a leaf for every day of the year. Every day she would carefully colour in a leaf according to the weather we’d had that day. If the weather was changeable (when isn’t it!) then she would make the leaf multicoloured! It was a great project, I’ve always felt like I’d quite like to do something similar – perhaps a scarf version would work! Or maybe you could do both and see how your mood is affected by the weather! You could either do two separate scarves and lay them next to each other to see the effect of the weather on your mood, or try to incorporate both into one scarf although that might be a bit trickier and get a bit complicated. Anyway, I love the idea, so thanks for the inspiration!
Alice Wright
Just as a separate point to my last comment, I’m interested that you recommend angora yarn. I don’t use angora for moral reasons, I’ve learned that the way they harvest the yarn from rabbits is quite different to the way it is harvested from sheep, goats, alpacas or other animals. It is a cruel method that literally turns my stomach when I read about it. I think you might do well to look into it and decide if it’s something you want your business to be associated with.
Natalie Canton
Love the Mood Scarf idea. Is there a color chart for the moods or do you decide for yourself which color depicks which mood?
Lion Brand Yarn
Hi Natalie — you choose the palette! Whatever colors you decide to reflect the moods you’re tracking is completely up to you.
If you’re looking for colors that coordinate well, our Vanna’s Choice line is specifically designed so that the colors complement each other!
cotton yarn
Started my scarf last night with my sad color as had a disastrous day, and so glad I did as I just couldn’t get the pattern to work! I couldn’t wait to do my happy rows today though as I finally cracked the pattern! Yipeeee x