Red Scarf Finished and Sent!

There will be knitting content today, but first:

On the bus on the way to work this morning, I saw a young woman, maybe 19 or so, whose attire caused me to consider kinnearing her. However, there was no way I could do it without the entire bus seeing me take her picture -- I was in the front row of the back, higher part of the bus and would definitely have needed to hold my camera up in the air -- so you'll have to use your imaginations.

I first noticed her mittens and hat, which appeared to be hand-knit, and the fact that she was wearing a down vest. It was a little chilly this morning, but the outerwear seemed a little bit of overkill. Then I notice the rest of her outfit..... Under the down vest, she had a long-sleeved hooded tunic that hit her mid-thigh. Under the tunic were black-and-white dotted leggings. Over the leggings were pastel-striped leg warmers. I was so shocked that I didn't notice her shoes. It was like she was channeling the '80's, or had raided her mother's 'old clothes' closet. It was kind of shocking!

Now onto knitting --

Last night, I wove in the ends of the Red Balloon Scarf and ran it through the washer, since it's made of superwash wool. I laid it down on towels on the floor and "blocked" it by sort of evening out the edges. This morning, it was still a bit damp, so I draped it over the stair rail for the day. After work, I wrapped it up and sent it priority to the OFA.

Details
Pattern: Interlocking Balloons by Shirley Paden, in Scarf Style

Yarn: KnitPicks Swish Superwash (worsted weight) in Fired Brick

Needles: size US 6 Harmony interchangeables

Modifications: My row gauge was way off -- I always get more rows per inch than I'm supposed to, like I'm knitting tight, which doesn't make sense, since my stitches per inch are loose. So I just kept knitting until it was 6 feet long. I'm not sure how many repeats I did, but I finished half way through a repeat.

Thoughts:

• The scarf grew in the wash, so it was closer to 7 feet long when I packed it up.
• The yarn is nice and squooshy, although it's a little bit splitty. However, it's inexpensive and comes in lots and lots of pretty colors!
• The pattern was fun -- it's made of shifting 1x3 ribs, with a few cable crosses. It's kind of three-dimensional (well, even more so than most knitting!).

I needed a card to send along with it, so I dug out some stamps and punches. That made me realize that I really need to figure out a way to organize my stamping/scrapbooking stuff. Right now, most of it is still in various boxes from the move and stuffed into my yarn room closet. Sometimes I really miss my old house!

This photo captures the color best.