Friday, October 12, 2007

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.

FO: Red Scarf

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!

Red Scarf and card
This photo captures the color best.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great scarf!

Bezzie said...

Very nice! I like that wavy rib going on.

Yeah, I've never fully unpacked all our boxes...there's always at least one or two that remain. Sigh.

Chris said...

The scarf turned out great - and better long than too short.

My, I wish you could've snuck a picture of the woman on the bus. *boggle*

Amysatx said...

I love the last pic..It's so sweet and it does seem to favor the red color best! I think a cell phone camera would have worked best in your situation, you could pretend to be trying to get a "signal" and "snap" the photo would be taken!

Norma said...

Oh, I LOVE it!!! Thanks for emailing me to alert me.

Anonymous said...

mines done too...
just needs it's picture taken so it can be sent Monday morning...

AndreaLea said...

Love the scarf!
The 80s comeback scares me too. It just seems wrong.
How do you like your Harmony needles?

Kim said...

Sounds like she bought her outfit through the Hannah Andersen catalog! Love the scarf. I tried that pattern once but screwed it up royally. Looks great!

Steven said...

Wonderful scarf. It's so graceful looking. Lucky recipient!

Anonymous said...

I don't know how I missed Harlot's coining of the term "kinnear" but I love it. I hope it gets back to him someday!

Your red scarf is beautiful.

Anonymous said...

the scarf is very nice! Love the pattern.