Wildwood Scarf
I needed the needles, nice big size 17 bamboo ones perfect for knitting a chunky scarf. So I cut my expectations and cast off my Wildwood scarf after two balls, instead of adding a third. The third ball would have ruined the scarf anyway. It had a slightly different appearance than the other two, since it was plied a little differently and the ratio of shiny thread to chunky wool was off.
Even with only two balls, the scarf is a usable length, but I am thinking that if I wet block it I can gain some length by stretching out the scarf a bit. (It worked with the scarf I knit from Ashley's handspun: I gained about 24" in length on a 60" scarf. I didn't really need the extra length on that one, but hopefully the same process will give me what I need on the Wildwood scarf.)
Scarf Knit with Ashley's Handspun
I mentioned that I wanted the needles out of the Wildwood scarf. Yes, I've got a bit of startitis. I began knitting a Ribs & Ruffles scarf similar to the one I knit a year and a half ago out of Misti Alpaca Chunky Handpaint (the one I can't wear because it makes me itch). This one is being knit out of the Fleece Artist Big Merino I bought at the Knitter's Fair last month.
This:
Fleece Artist Big Merino
Plus this:
Ribs & Ruffles Scarf
Equals this:
(We won't talk about how long it took me to finally master the two-sided rib pattern. I had planned on doing some "easy" knitting on Friday, since I know my brain is full of other stuff right now and tends to put a low priority on sparing me the brainpower to figure out knitting. So the Big Merino was going to be another garter stitch scarf. But that was not pretty enough for this beautiful yarn. So at the last minute, I replaced it with a Ribs & Ruffles scarf -- oh the joy of having an iPhone connected to the internet. But apparently, even a Ribs & Ruffles scarf is complicated enough to flummox me, so it took me a few tries to get into it.)
So anyway, I went to two Knit & Chats yesterday. Neither one of them was all that lively. There were six of us at Starbucks, which is about half the number of people we used to get back in April or so; and there were only four of us at SWK, including Lynne (etcgirl) who was working in the shop that night. But a quiet gathering of knitters can be quite calming, so I enjoyed both my Starbucks and Shall We Knit experiences.
The normal Friday routine was disrupted a bit by Oktoberfest, first because E., someone who almost never misses going to SWK on a Friday, was entertaining visitors with a night of festivities. But Lise was up for going early and enjoying a meal at Meme's before the knitting started. So I drove to her house and we went in together. (This turned out to be a good thing, because Lise was able to glean a lot of useful information about Rhinebeck from Lynne, who has been to Rhinebeck before.)
And second, traffic was crazy! What with the weather (it was peeing rain), the fact that it was Friday before a long weekend (and there are one college and two universities' worth of students using the highway to get out of town), and Oktoberfest (wherein the tourists were using the highway to get into town), it was all a big mess.
Oh, and here is my special shout out to Lise's husband, who was on Bluetooth speakerphone when Lise was driving and got told off for "language" because I was there. So he says, "Lise, you know what I like about your friend Karen? She's a really up-to-date person. You know, she's cool, she's 'with it' -- you might even say she's HIP." Groooooooooan.
Yeah, I'm so hip it's tragic. I mean, really. That was pretty lame!
Unlike me.
You know, now that I've had my hip replacement.
(Ba dum bum.)
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