My Sister's Scarf

Over the course of the summer, I went missing for a while. Perhaps you noticed. At one point, I had so many things to write about and so little time to write that when I'd sit down to post I couldn't decide what to start with. So I didn't post. On the one hand, it meant if you showed up here, it was like walkinginto an unexpectedly empty room. The furniture was there, but nobody was home. On the other hand, I have lots of stuff left to write about. One of the posts that never got written was the one about my sister's scarf.

This is from early July. I work on this local 4th of July parade. Have for years and years. Since before John was born, as a matter of fact. As a result, it's become something of a tradition for my sister's family to join us for the parade and a picnic afterward. Since the parade steps off at 11 AM, we're all free to go off to fireworks or other festivities for the evening. This year, my sister's crew had tickets to Mary Poppins, the play. My sister's going-to-the-theater ensemble included a - scarf. A fabulous scarf, casually draped around her neck and hanging open over the front of her jacket, just as if it weren't a work of art. Fine yarn. Sparkly. Beautiful colors. I wanted it. Really badly. We're talking a serious case of apple-green envy here. I needed a scarf like that.

I've been in pursuit, admittedly as an on and off sort of thing until lately, ever since. It's been there, nibbling at the edges of my consciousness, every time I went into a yarn store, every time I browsed online. The search got earnest over these past few weeks. I have finally tracked down the components. I found the pattern - or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof, on Ravelry. Since then I've been hunting yarn. I was thinking silk.

Yesterday I hauled Marco off to Knitche, ostensibly to check out their bagged yarn sale. In reality, however secret and un-admitted, I wanted my scarf. That, and there was the problem of not remembering nearly as much as I thought I did about knitting with beads. I could not figure out the pattern directions. At Knitche, I found my yarn, which is not silk, nor is it the fingering weight that pattern called for. It's Prism Saki in Woodland.

I was pretty sure I had beads left over from the class. That didn't stop me from taking a side trip to Michael's (the bead store next door to Knitche didn't open until noon) and, let's call it, expanding my options.

Not only that, before we left Knitche, I found a Reference Work. I love Reference Works.

Okay, if I got determined a bit, I could probably locate the folder Susanna Hanson provided for the class on beaded knitting I took at Stitches a couple of years back, with all the tips and tricks I'd need, making the purchase of the book sheer self-indulgence. I'm justifying it by saying the patterns are pretty and the book covers two other beading techniques - neither of which I need to make this scarf.

Now all I have to do is locate my beading needle (I think it may be in my button box) and start stringing those 270 size 6 glass seed beads called for by the pattern.

Huh. Stringing 270 beads. Maybe I don't want this as much as I thought I did.