Scarves, scarves, and more scarves

You know it's funny, in the Yarn Harlot's most recent book, Knitting Rules! (an entertaining read for you knitters out there, by the way), she says that scarves are not for beginners. I wish someone had told me that several years ago. I decided today to take photos of all my previously unphotographed finished objects. Guess what, it's nothing but scarves.

I have to admit that they were easy... all just knit, knit, knit. I'm so glad I've moved into somewhat more exciting things recently though. I look at the yards of garter stich and it just makes me yawn oooOOOOO.

So at the risk of putting you to sleep, here's my gallery of finished objects (from prior to the start of my blog).

My first scaft as an adult knitter:



Oh my, the horror, looking at the tag, it's knit from Red Heart Light & Lofty -- Plum.
I suspect I finished this sometime in the fall of 2003.
More funny, I wouldn't buy this now at all. I guess I've been brainwashed by other blogging knitters regarding the values of "true" yarn (versus the inferior Red Heart).

Here's my second FO:



This was knit in Lion Brand Jiffy Thick & Quick -- Berkshires.
I probably finished this in winter (Nov?) of 2003.
I still like the colors of this scarf and it did knit up fast ... not an undesirable feature.

Here's the third:



I knit this one for S. It's Lion Brand Homespun -- Williamsburg & Edwardian.
A perfectly functional boy scarf, also completed late in 2003.

Next to last,



some fun yarn I bought in a LYS in Seattle, WA, during a visit there over the new year's in january of 2004. It's Plassard Neptune, couleur 001, bain 22. I suspect this was finished in early 2004, maybe March or April.

I must have had a big knitting lull after that. S and I did start interviewing for jobs, sell a house, buy a house, and move to California during the 2004-2005 school year, but surely I must have done some knitting during that time? Maybe I was in a fugue state.

Nevertheless, some time later I (foolishly) purchased "yarn" (and I put that in quotes purposely) from the $1 section at Target. Now what was I thinking? It's really string with some fluff attached. It is a bear to knit. I started knitting a scarf on this long, long ago (but sometime within the last year). Then I threw it in the closet disgusted. Today, after reading much about lace in the past weeks, it occurred to me that I might be able to treat this scarf I've been knitting like lace and block it. So I finished up the ball of yarn that was in use and went to work.

Here it is after knitting one ball of "yarn."



Here it is soaking.



Here it is pinned out. No I don't have blocking wires, but I improvised with weed-wacker wire (after all this is a scaft that I despise and we're seeing if we can salvage it.



Amazingly, the weed-wacking stuff seems to be working quite well. It was knit on size 10 needles so the holes were plenty large to thread the wire through. Depending on what it's like when it dries, maybe I won't discard it after all. I suspect though that once I unpin it, it will just spring back into a narrow little scarf and not retain its shape. Its 100% nylon so I'm not sure how it will behave. Even stretched it's only about 30" long; I'm not sure I'll have the energy to knit another half even if this works. Learn a lesson, don't buy $1 yarn from Target.

So anyway, I'm not sure I want to put this in the FO category yet; but maybe it should be. I'll know tomorrow probably.

That, then, leads to the final scarf:



This I finished in early September as a gift for a friend.
The dreaded Lion Brand Fancy Fur -- Stained Glass.
Fancy Fur I don't have a big desire to work with again.

That my friends is a history of scarves. Are you still awake?