KNITSTER

Okay, let me clarify that statement before your mind goes astray in the wrong direction. I recently mentioned holiday knitting.  I only decided– at the last minute, no less– to make a scarf for my boss for the holidays. Money is tight, and she gave me something nice, but I felt I needed to give her something, even though I gave her something handknit last year as well. (A pair of wrist warmers in a golden yarn with teal and red flecks in it. It matched a sweater I saw her wear, okay?) Anyway, in trying to think of something to make her that wouldn’t take much time, I figured I’d make a scarf. Decided that I’d make it in blue and red, which are alternately the colors of the taekwondo association we are affiliated with, or with the NY Giants, of which she wears a baseball style jacket with the logo on it, being that they are her favorite football team. 

I started out with Lion Brand Thick and Quick yarn right off the bat in red and blue. Okay, no problem. Then I was using size 10 1/2 needles. For me, that’s still fairly large needles, considering I’ve been working on socks and wrist warmers on size 2s and 4s lately. But for whatever reason, I just could not make this work nicely. I ended up frogging the scarf FOUR times. No exaggeration there. Okay, maybe three times, but STILL. Time was running out, so I decided to put out the big guns, also known as my size 17 needles. Yes, I own a pair of metal ones. So, that made a big difference. I was knitting up less stitches, but producing more scarf in the process. I was happy. But then the problem came to be that the metal needles were way too slippery. There was even a day where my son even slipped the needles, just put down for a moment, right off like slipping food off a shish kebob! (Fortunately, I didn’t lose the stitches, and you can still imagine I was not happy with him at that moment, as he knows better!)

Today, I broke down and invested in a pair of wooden Clover size 17 needles instead. Significantly less slippage, and made it much easier to knit up. It was a fairly dead afternoon today at work, and I was able to make significant progress on the scarf, and in fact, finished it just as I was to leave! At this writing, I still have to weave in the ends, but for all intensive purposes, it’s done! And just in time, because tomorrow is my last day of work before the winter/Christmas week break, so I had to have it done by tomorrow! So it’s done, and it’s one less thing I have to do!

So…let’s go to the film!

 
Ignore the fat lady– I mean the model– showing off the scarf!

Here’s the scarf all coiled up, ready to spring onto its wearer!

I hope my boss likes it, that’s all I can say. It just goes to prove that big yarn and big needles can result in big results FAST. Now, maybe I can get back to that winter hat for myself that I started! It’s been cold around here lately!

Posted on December 20th, 2007 by Dani
Filed under: Finished Objects, Photos, Projects