Scarves 'R' Us

It occurred to me that the cure for my RS2 malaise might be a spell of tricky knitting, so I let Branching Out come out to play. I knew it was a bit risky with all the males home. Still, I whipped off 4 repeats, moving my lifelines along as I went. Even snarky Row 7 cooperated. Then I smoothed it all out and realized I'd done all my knitting on the wrong side. That would explain why I thought the stitch marker was in an odd place.

No pictures, too painful.

It has since been frogged and re-knit, with an additional repeat because otherwise I would probably never pick it up ever-ever again. Ever. As it is, I look at it and think I should only have six repeats left instead of ten and my teeth just clench.

The moral, obviously, is "Listen to your stitch markers."

That, however, is not the end of the scarf story. I still needed something as a break from the everlasting, eternal, world without end k2, kb, p. And all I came up with were negatives. I don't want to start a major project with Clare's sweater looming over me. At Thanksgiving, my sister had mentioned oven mitts, but then I realized, she's worked her way through the blog. She's a nice sister. Of course she's going to ask for oven mitts. I'm definitely off mitering while I debate adding more colors to that mix. The Island Embrace Variation 2 made sort of whimpering noises in the corner, but it's over 60 degrees here (in November?!?). A lapful of wool is not going to happen.

Sometimes I get attacked by an idea. Caught up, as it were, in delusions of creativity. This particular fit left me with an Island Embrace Scarf, pictured in its second incarnation. I started making it just like the blanket, switching yarn every row, but was afraid it looked too muddy. This one is three rows of each color (has to be an odd number or it won't work), since that's about as far as I'm willing to carry the yarn.
















I'm having second thoughts about the colors. though. Maybe grey and gold with the red, rather than green and blue? Maybe double-stranding so it goes faster?
















While I ponder that, I've started this.














It's from Vogue's "On the Go" series; Scarves 2, the "Woven Pattern Scarf." It's supposed to be knit with a bulky weight, but I don't like thick scarves, so I'm using worsted and knitting more . This is the Fonty Yarns Soft Tweed I picked up at The Fold. I cast on 42 instead of 26 and figure I'm looking at 144 repeats. It's a 4 row repeat, each row a little different from the others. 12 down, 132 to go. But it's fun, so I refuse to take the math any further.

I now have a double safety net for when I fall off the RS2 wagon (is it better to mix one's metaphors than extend them?). The Island Embrace scarf is easy. Well. It will be once I settle on a color combination. And the Woven Pattern Scarf is entertaining.

Not only that. Proving that "a change is as good as a rest," I realized I only have to knit 22 more inches on RS2. The extra yarn? That's why God invented fringe.