Knitting Red Scarves

I've been knitting away quite intently for the Red Scarf Project in the last week or so. I finished my first scarf and I'm a little more than 8 in. into the second.

I had written, in an earlier posting here, that I was knitting the first scarf in Open Basketweave Mesh, but I changed my mind and knitted it in Cartridge Ribbing. It's a nice solid warm scarf, but not surprisingly, the pattern takes a lot more yarn than does straight stockinette or garter. I used a little more than two and a half balls of yarn making a five-foot scarf. That's not much, except that I only got four balls of that color, Tomato. Maybe I'll make a matching cap with the rest.

The second scarf, in Cranberry Wool of the Andes, is from this pattern, A Touch Of Whimsy Scarf. I'm enjoying this one, too, although I do regret that it's not a reversible pattern. I've learned how to do an I-cord cast on, which I'd never seen before. About halfway through the third repeat, I finally figured out that the first and last three stitches on each row are, effectively, I cord. Now that's clever.

The scarf for our niece is languishing on the needles. I don't like the pattern I've been using, because it's looks to me as if it'll be prone to snagging. I've got to look around for a good pattern to show off the hand-painted nature of the yarn. I really should frog what I've got done and wind it off into a skein, so I can weight and steam it to take out the kinks.

Other than that, I don't have much on needles, only one UFO (UnFinished Object) that I put aside to get my Christmas and Red Scarf knitting done. I've got about a foot of this scarf, Exchequered. Mine isn't black and yellow. Instead, it's cream and lavender, in Lion Brand Micro Spun. This is a fascinating pattern. It's double knitting. The scarf has two separate sides, joined only at the edges and the squares. This is the same technique people used to knit two socks simultaneously, one inside the other. I had to learn to hold the yarn in both hands, to keep from getting everything hopelessly tangled up. I've mastered Continental-style knitting, I think, but the purling is very difficult for me. I'm also having a little problem where I twist the two colors together at the edge. I'll probably end up frogging this one, too, and starting over, because it's just not as well-done as I'd like it to be.