False Starts

I'm wallowing in them lately.

I want something to fill the empty knitting space left by the completed mitered squares. No, I haven't settled on an assembly method yet (in case you were wondering). I need something easy to remember. Something portable. I thought I heard the siren call of Red Scarves.

I've learned a number of different cast-ons over this past year. Long-tail, knitted, purled, cable, Italian tubular. None of these match the muscle memory I have from those days in my Grandmother's kitchen, when I learned to purl when I should have been knitting. Cast-ons are much on my mind as I read over patterns.

I've been chasing bookcases. This has led me, over the past week or so, on fruitless excursions. I have been in Home Depots, Targets, and outlet furniture stores. I have been north through Chicago Air and Water Show set-up traffic, west to Oak Brook (this as a bribe to feed the younger generation on chicken strips and Frango Mint ice cream pie) then southwest into Bolingbrook to the new(er) Ikea.

Just one exercise in frustration after another. I come close, but like will o' the wisps, my goals escape me.

The bookcases are either out of stock, or won't fit in my trunk.

The cast on my grandmother taught me eludes me.

The red scarf. Well. . . I remembered a pattern in Sally Melville's The Knit Stitch. Since I'm working on the Einstein Not So Warm Sweater, it was easy to find. Besides, I've meant to make it since I bought the book. The pattern is terribly clever. It starts out as a triangle and ends up with long rectangular ends. so the triangle can tuck down your coat collar and the long ends wrap around your neck. So far, my stash and I cannot agree. These are the starts that have (so far) escaped frogging.

The yarns?
Top: Blue Sky Alpaca Melange, double stranded.
Middle: Cascade Di.ve Fiamma in 22047.
Bottom: Lana Grossa Rainbow in color 705. (Why can I not photograph reds?)

The problem(s)?
Top: Current favorite, but not quite what I want.
Middle: Too girly.
Bottom: Hideous to knit with.

I'm not giving up on the pattern though. For one thing, there are more reds in my stash. Like the Fonty Soft Tweed I found at The Fold (left) and the Malabrigo Bulky from Knitche (right).

For another, while Sally Melville recommends the backward loop cast-on, that's not one of the cast-ons I'd learned. I'd been using the knitted cast on to get the end of row increases and by the time I reached the Blue Sky Alpaca scarf, I was pretty sick of them. I decided to suck it up and learn the designer's choice.

It's the one my grandmother taught me.

People. Megs and Brandy have done some serious ballot box stuffing. You've got until 9 AM tomorrow to outwit them.

Edited to add: Oops. You have until 9 AM Friday. I meant the contest to end Thursday, but the 24th is Friday.