This scarf was for my cousin Kam-Marie. Like me, her favorite color is purple and I had a few skeins of nice variegated lavender, gray and black worsted weight yarn that I inherited. It was knit on size 8 needles and took for-ev-er to complete. This scarf is how I got backed up with making the other gifts. This scarf is the reason why Aunt Glo did not get her pom-poms! FYI – knitting up these gifts was a great way to knit down my stash.
I will say that, aside from the crocheted decrease fiasco, this was the most time consuming and complicated of all the gifts. I know the point of making them was to learn a new stitch/technique, but I mean this one was a doozy. I cannot tell you how many times I had to restart this pattern. It was the first time I had to do an increase, and I had to do it one stitch and one row at a time. I could not wrap my head around the instructions. It was as if I could see it, but my brain kept saying “there’s NO WAY that’s right. you’ve got to be kidding me!” I finally gave up and put out a cry for help on the Ravelry.com boards and got an answer to my dilemma.
After finally moving forward (I was actually doing it right before I asked for help), I moved through the increase section without any more problems. When I came to the straight section, alternating rows of knit and purl, I developed knitters ADD. I could not stay focused on the scarf. I got bored, started something else, worked on the crochet blanket (and you know know how I feel about crocheting!). Anything. Finally, in June during the Philadelphia’s Writers’ Conference, I took the scarf along so I could work on it between workshops and on the train ride to and from Center City. Once the straight section was completed, the decrease section went smoothly.
Because this project put me so far behind (it took me two to three months to complete) I didn’t get a chance to knit scarves for my uncles. I also didn’t have time to block this one. I thought I could get away with steam ironing it, but the sides eventually rolled back in on itself. So, this one had to be returned so I could block it.
