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?