Kiss My Knits!

I’m making a show row rib scarf, as seen in MagKnits. There are issues therewith. Pics below.

Actual color is somewhere between the two – not quite as bright blue as the first, not quite as washed out as the second.

I’m doing this because I love this colorway (201) of Noro Silk Garden, enough that I bought three skeins of it with this pattern in mind. I thought the diagonal sections would be a nice way to show it off. And it’s nice to very quickly knock out a section between Jayne hats.

Well, the actual pattern calls for a bulky weight yarn, and Silk Garden is definitely thinner than that. In fact, I’m knitting this up on size 6 needles (what’s that, like 4.5mm?) which is good, because it’s giving me the width I want and is the recommended size for the yarn. However, the down side is this: smaller needles + thinner yarn = more yarn needed to cover the same space.

That’s most of one skein of Silk Garden in those pics. The scarf is 15″ long so far. I’d like it to be 60″. So I’d need four skeins. And the yarn is $11 a skein at my local yarn store. So with tax, this would have $50 in materials invested in it when done. For a scarf that I technically don’t need, can’t sell (copyright restrictions) and don’t know if anyone would want as a gift.

Now, add to that this:

Hey, look! It’s a gigantic knot! And they’ve chosen to rejoin the nearly white section with a nearly black one! Why, that won’t be obvious at all. Good job, folks at the mill!

So now I’m contemplating just unravelling the whole freakin’ thing. I could always decrease the number of stitches to shorten the width and do it in a thicker yarn, one that some jerk didn’t decide to tie with a very unharmonious remainder.

I like the colorway still, and I like the pattern, but I’m not sure about the two together at this point.

Very disappointing, darn it.

However, next up in line is that poor Canadian Browncoat who had her hat stolen, and opted to re-order. I did cut her a significant discount. She decided to also order a matching scarf, so I’m going to do one double-knit (produces stockinette on both sides without using a circular needle) so that’ll be a little break. I did a green and tan double knit scarf out of godawful acrylic back when I was still working at UPN46, a good seven years ago, and it was fun. It felt like I knew a little sneaky trick – how to knit a tube on two needles. 🙂

In “I spoil myself” news, I used a little Jayne hat money to buy myself a teeny tiny loom, which I thought might be a fun way to use up little bits of yarn. Just ordered it tonight, so we’ll see what it’s like when it gets here.

I also picked up a little treat for my fiber goddaughter, from the swap. I’m excited about having this pass through my hands – it looks cool. 🙂

As you may be able to tell, I spent the first day of my daughter’s return to school trying to get caught up on knitting. Tomorrow: try to get caught up on errands!