Off The Needles

Well, I finished the third red scarf for the Red Scarf Project. I knitted it in KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in (surprise) red. The pattern I started with was Argosy, which appeared in the Winter 2K6 Knitty. The reason I say I started with this pattern is because I wasn't paying quite as much attention as I should have been and I knitted my version a little differently.

Rather than saying that I screwed up, I'm going to say that I created a personal interpretation of the pattern. What I did was knit two together (k2tog) after every yarnover on the right side of the square, even though the pattern omits that for the first yarnover in the first right-side row. I didn't figure this out until I was about twenty rows from being done and I certainly wasn't going to rip it all out and do it over.

I also did something I almost always do, which is to add two stitches, one on each end of the row. I slip the first stitch purlwise and purl the last stitch on every row. This gives a nice even chain edging up the side and prevents an uneven edge. Of course, I could do the same thing by slipping the first stitch knitwise and knitting the last stitch, but slipping purlwise is the default.

So now I have three scarves. One, a dark rose Moebius scarf, is completely finished, washed, and blocked. The other two, the red Argosy and the tomato cartridge rib, are knitted but not finished. I haven't darned in the yarn ends or washed and blocked them. I'll finish them up as soon as I post this. I'll take snapshots tomorrow, after they dry, and then bundle them up and send them to Virginia on Monday. UPS is my friend.

I also picked up three $25 Visa gift cards and will enclose them, with washing instructions and a brief note, with the scarves. All my life I've had pretty much everything a person could expect, with loving, supportive parents providing resources. I had a friend in high school who was a foster child and it was a pretty miserable life. I'm quite sure it hasn't improved one bit.

Speaking of college students, my goddaughter is a freshman at Penn State. I'm sending her a bunch of scarves. One of them is the Moebius scarf I knitted for her and the rest are the scarves I knitted while visiting my mother. I sold five of those through a friend who has does craft shows but the show season is past and they probably won't be in style next year. My goddaughter lives in a dorm and has a lot of friends, so I'm sure these scarves will find good homes. Apparently some of the students from warmer climes, like Puerto Rico and Florida, haven't been quite prepared for how cold Pennsylvania gets and scarves will be welcome. I'll take snaps of them, too.

I'll accept requests for scarves from readers, too. As soon as I finish Boron's and Kim's scarves and the Cashmere Moebius Cowl by Cat Bordhi, I'll be taking new requests. I've got some really nice yarns, including cashmere and alpaca, to use, too.