FO: Photogenic Scarf

With Multnomah bound off and more research needed before I start my sweater, I found myself without an active knitting project. So I when Dad went to storage with me last week I decided to pull out some FOs, including the Photogenic Scarf.


This was the scarf I started because I needed a "photogenic" project for The Yarn Harlot's visit to Austin, then ended up leaving in my desk at work while I was on leave. It's been languishing for a long time, just waiting to be finished.


I put off finishing the scarf because I couldn't decide how long to make it. I tend to make scarves about five feet long. I'm about five feet tall, so all I have to do is hold it up to get a rough idea of how close I am to finishing. But somehow five feet didn't seem long enough for this scarf. I decided to try for six feet. Then I decided to go all the way, until I used up all the yarn. It was a bold decision that reminded me of the end of "Thelma and Louise". I know that sounds like a weird comparison, but it sounds even weirder when you consider that I've never seen "Thelma and Louise".

I think I ended up with about six and a half feet of scarf.

In the picture above, I had Katie adjust the scarf so you could get an idea of how long it is. Getting the whole thing in the picture was difficult.


Here's Katie with the scarf in the "supermodel pose."

I used the wooden US size 8 needles that I got in the Knitter's Scavenger Hunt Swap, and three skeins of Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Chunky in colorway 16. At one point I had the color listed in Ravelry as "Rain Forest", but Yarndex has it listed as "Lily Pad." I think I'm going to call it Lily Pad.

This is another Brioche Rib or Eve's Rib or Mistake Rib or whatever you want to call it scarf. I slipped every third stitch, then shifted the stitch that was slipped on the next row. This created the nice neat rows of Vs you see on each side.


On Friday I worked on the scarf at the waiting room at the doctor's office. Mom started looking at it, and she put it around her neck at one point. I cracked up when it occurred to me that my scarf was so long that Mom could wear it while I was still knitting it. Right before I completely ran out of yarn, we recreated the moment. I also tried it with Dad, but he blinked. You can see all the photos I took of the scarf here.

After I took this photo, I bound off on the next row. I only had a small piece of yarn left.

After knitting and tinking it a few times, I decided to bind off "in pattern." Basically, I slipped all the stitches that I was supposed to slip in the regular knitting on the bind off row. It kept the end of the scarf from getting stretched out.

I'll leave you with my favorite picture of this scarf. I had Katie use the same pose I used in the picture I took of myself wearing the Entrelac Scarf.


There's a cold front coming, so you may see me wearing the scarf like this in the next couple of days.

The Yarn Harlot is Coming! The Yarn Harlot is Coming!

I'm not sure how I managed to go three days without posting. Between the holiday and everything else, I either came home too late or fell asleep too early every night. The good news is that I'm about to get a lot of blog fodder.

The Yarn Harlot will be at BookPeople tomorrow, and I have a lot of "preparing" to do.

The Hill Country Weavers blog offered tickets to the special reception before the event for the first few people who e-mailed them. Of course, this was posted Monday, and somehow I didn't see it until today. I was sure they were all gone, but I e-mailed them anyway, just to be sure.

At the last minute, I got an e-mail saying they had room for me. There was an attachment with the actual ticket.

Now I'm extra excited. And somehow I've got to fly from work to a doctor appointment to BookPeople as fast as I can tomorrow.


Cherry Bomb needed to be washed again, which meant I washed the bathroom sink as well. The pink stripes still bleed a bit, but there was no drama like the first wash. I hastily swished it in Grapefruit Eucalan and laid it out on a small patch of floor by my dresser.

Cherry Bomb shows a bit too much arm for work, so I'll have to change at some point along the way. Hopefully it will dry quickly in a hot car.


I also wound some yarn for the occasion. You'll see why later on. The red skein is KnitPicks Cadena in "Cranberry" and the green multi-colored ones are Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Chunky in "Lily Pad."

It's so nice to have a swift and a ball winder. I didn't have any problems like last time, even with the really chunky yarns.

Now I must go and do some casting on.

FO: Jules' Scarf

Another the parade of much delayed FOs.

This is the scarf I made for Jules for his birthday. This was the mystery project that had to be green that I talked about here. Jules' favorite color is green.

I used two skeins of Misti Alpaca Chunky in color 652. I think. Actually, that may have been the dye lot. It looks like VR1440 in Forest Green. Anyway, I kind of wish I had bought three skeins so I could have made it longer.

I used US size 8 needles, good old aluminum Boye straights.

I remembered seeing a mistake rib scarf floating around back at the Knit n' Knibble in Florida. I was looking for something similar. I finally did a much modified version of the Misti Chunky Ribs and Ruffles Scarf. I took off the ruffles and widened it. (I think I cast on 31 stitches, but I'm not sure.) It's a brioche rib, I think.

The ends ended up a little wonky looking. The picture on the right is pre-blocking. I managed to sort of block it "in." When you block, you normally stretch things out. I think I managed to reset it using a cold water block. It wasn't perfect, but it was an improvement. Who knows what would have happened if I'd stretched the width of the whole thing.

As you can see, I managed to get away with just blocking the ends. I folded it in the middle.

Jules loved it, although I sent it late. (But not because of the knitting. I was behind on other parts of the gift.) This was part of what he e-mailed me when he finally got my gift:

...And I *LOVE* the scarf!! It is even nicer than I imagined. For some reason I envisioned this big, awkward thing with a bunch of wild colors. But it is actually rather conservative and gentlemanly. I can see myself wearing it whenever we get a cold spell. And I'll definitely bring it with me this Christmas...

LOL. I can do awkward and wild colors too.

The other cool thing is that he now knows what alpaca is, and he loves it. He can't get over how soft it is. When I asked him about what type of scarf he wanted me to knit him, the first thing he said was "not itchy." Alpaca is what most people go to when they're worried about itchy.

He's learning. He knows what an FO is. He just needs to remember that I'm not a seamstress.