Cables here, cables there

This seems to be the season for scarves here at Knitting Affairs, since Here and There Cables is the second one I’ve finished in as many months. I actually finished knitting it last Saturday, but it wasn’t dry by the time I ran out of natural light last Sunday. But what else is new, right?

Anyway…

The detail shot is truer to color, but in person it’s a bit darker and richer.

Pattern:
Here and There Cables by Norah Gaughan (published in Scarf Style)

Yarn:
Three balls of Louisa Harding Grace in color 9

Needles:
Three US6 / 4.25mm Crystal Palace bamboo DPNs

Modifications:
I knit four plain ribbed rows in between each cable crossing row, rather than six. Also, I worked the pattern over 38 stitches instead of 74.

 
This scarf proves how bored I normally get when knitting the same stitch pattern over and over. It was really fun when I started it back in October, but by the time I got halfway through the second ball, this was seriously starting to drag. I managed to finish it because it was pretty much the only project I brought out with me to SnBs. I wasn’t going to touch something so monotonous if I had more enjoyable projects lying around, after all.

This is why I usually try to strike a balance between process and product when selecting new knits.

I do love the finished product, at least. I think it’s pretty, and I know I’ll use it because it coordinates with much of my wardrobe and it’s very warm, thanks to the reversible cables. It’s noticeably narrow, though. I mean, I do like narrower scarves as a rule, but if this one weren’t so thick and squishy, even I think it would be too narrow for practical use – it’s only about 3.5 inches wide. But it’s just as well that I didn’t make it wider. I only had three balls of the yarn, and I would’ve run out much more quickly if I’d had to knit an extra eighteen stitches per row.

Speaking of the yarn, I really like Grace a lot. It’s very soft and it has a lovely sheen to it. One (fairly minor) annoyance is that it’s a bit on the slippery side, and thus I actually had to use a spare DPN when working the cable crossings. I’d never cabled using an extra needle before, and even after I got used to it, I still found it a bit fiddly. But it’s better than dropping stitches, right?