Scarfin' Around

And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program

My picture taking skills are somewhat lacking these days. Not that I haven't been taking pictures, just that I haven't been very successful at it. I'm not afraid to share my less-than perfect pictures, though, lucky for you. ha

I briefly mentioned in yesterday's post that part of my yarn has arrived. Want to see?




Here is the Misti Alpaca Pima Cotton Silk in Mediterranean Blue. (Thank you, Lori, for lending me your new purse for a backdrop.)








Here it is on the ball winder. (This is one of those less than stellar picture taking moments I mentioned before.) And yes, that is my ball winder clamped to the closet door. Me and my still-on-the-mend ankle can't manuever to its usual locale.








This is the stitch pattern I finally decided on. It is a slightly modified version of the August 22 stitch pattern from this perpetual calendar.










I swatched and ripped. I debated and discussed. I looked at so many options and so many scarf patterns and nothing really stood out in my mind. Three times I was sure that I had made up my mind but then I saw this. August 22 jumped off the page at me and really stuck. The pima cotton/silk is pretty soft and somewhat lighter than the yarn in the sample so I wasn't sure if this yarn would take to it. What do ya'll think?

This is 9" worth of scarf (it is approximately 5.25" wide) for my dear, sweet exchange pal. She (the scarf) isn't the most photogenic but I am very happy with it. This is my first real foray into cables other than a slew of sample swatches and other various practicing. It is a pleasant, satisfying knit...an easy-to-memorize 12 row pattern repeat. I have heard at least one other ISE knitter bemoaning the amount of yarn that cables seem to consume.




This leads me to my next dilemna.

When I originally ordered yarn a week ago Friday, I had decided on the Farrow Rib Scarf. I was certain. The Farrow Rib would have required about 380 yards of yarn for a 70" scarf. Since I had it in mind to make a slightly longer scarf (72" to 75"), and a skein of PCS is 191 yards, I ordered 4 skeins. I wanted to make sure I didn't scrimp on yarn. So I ordered two skeins of black and two skeins of papaya. Then I got squimish. I was afraid the papaya might show up a little orange and I didn't want this scarf to turn out even a little Halloween-ish. By the time I had this moment of clarity, Web's had already shipped my order via UPS. So I ordered the two skeins of the Mediterranean Blue. The blue got here (via mail) first and I, of course, couldn't wait to start knitting (as pictured above). I don't have enough of the blue to make the scarf as long as I would like and I am not ordering more yarn.

I'm happy with the decision to do the black and blue together but I can't decide in what configuration. What do ya'll think of four 20" segments, blue-black-blue-black. Or maybe five 15" segments blue-black-blue-black-blue. Umm. I love this stitch pattern and I want to make it just right. What do ya'll think?