There were moments in its growth that I was sure
that would never happen.
I've knitted many pairs
of socks but they were always done on very small needles...US0-US2's...and the sock yarn stayed on the needles. This scarf was
done on US5's and the yarn had a mind of its own and tried to fall off the needles constantly. The first 2 stitches at the beginning of every row would slide off when I tried to work a knit front and back increase in the 3rd stitch. And whenever I dropped a stitch it would slide down 2 or 3 rows in an instant! I frogged the entire scarf couple of times because when I did drop a stitch and managed to pick it up, my repair looked awful and I had to rip the whole thing out!
Then there was the pattern. I bought it from Ravelry.com and it was written by an English woman. It was the first pattern from England I had ever bought and it may be the last. Maybe British knitters are smarter than we are on this side of the pond but there were times the pattern just didn't make any sense. After you cast on and set up the garter stitch section, the directions tell you to repeat the last row until you have used up 45% of your yarn. It never says how many stitches you should have or how many stitches you will need to work the owls! I had 2 skeins of Stroll Tweed sock yarn in Down Heather from KnitPicks so I just used up 1 ball on the garter stitch section before I did the increase row, ending up with 462 sts. (I ended up with 30 owls centered with 34 garter stiches on either sides.)And after the owl band was completed I had enough yarn to work 8 rows in garter stitch before I bound
The scarf ended up being about 54" long and 12" deep. Because the yarn is a merino wool/nylon blend it is super soft...and machine wash and dryable. The owl's eyes are glass beads that I knitted in. If I ever do this pattern again I think I'll use a heavier yarn...sport-weight at least...and it may end up deep enough to be worn as a shawl.
No comments:
Post a Comment