09 December, 2010

Brother!


I am knitting a scarf for my brother.  This will be a Christmas gift, and it is probably the only...oh wait, never mind.  I forgot, I have another Christmas project on the needles already.  See how that happens?  They're sneaky.  Anyway, last year my brother told me he would love a scarf for Christmas, and despite feeling like he could have been (ahem) a bit more subtle, I was happy to comply.  Since he wasn't more subtle, I told him to buy me some yarn, and I'd make him one.  That's what happens when you decide not to be subtle.  If it's too much like an order, you have to supply the materials.  Method of request notwithstanding, he's very knitworthy...he and I are pretty close.
He wanted something masculine, and I figured lace was right out.  (Also, see previous post, lace doesn't happen at my house.  See, I'm learning!)  I picked Henry, from Knitty.  He picked Berroco Ultra Alpaca - Fine.  I actually did swatch, after reading several reviews on Ravelry, and was so glad...because it turns out that knitting this pattern in this yarn would probably have left my eyesight permanently impaired.  For one thing, the yarn is very dark - a foresty, heathered evergreen color.  Also, it has a bit of a halo.  Just a touch, but the combination of color and halo meant that not only could I barely see the stitches to work the pattern, it didn't really show at all once I was done.  Scrap that, because if I'm going to blind myself knitting a stitch pattern that requires some focus, it had darn well better show up when I'm done.

So I decided to knit this width-wise (rather than end to end), and just do a nice, simple rib.  I cast on 530 stitches, before my long tail ran out.  Then I started out with a knit row, purled a row, knit 1, repeat...

I love the way it's turning out:


I think this sort of nubbly texture looks really fantastic with this yarn.  I also think the puckers created by the ribbing will help make it even warmer than it would be anyway, so, despite the fact that the ribbing means I have to knit about two inches of fabric for every inch of actual width, I'm very happy.  Or I was, until I hit a conundrum:
Can you see that?  Right there is where I looked down and realized that, on the previous row, I switched from knit to purl half-way through the row.  See purl bumps below the needle on the right?  And none on the left?  So maddening! That, right there, is why you should never stop in the middle of a row.  I put it down at bedtime last night, and didn't look carefully at it when I picked it back up today. 

Now I have to decide what to do.  On the one hand, it may not show up.  Like I said, the yarn is pretty dark, and a bit fuzzy, and really, who looks that closely at a scarf anyway?  But here's the thing:  I'll KNOW.  And the ribbing will be off, which I think is going to maybe be more obvious than a few stitches alone would have been.  I'm debating, and losing knitting time while the scarf sits in time out:
How much do you want to bet the cat is ON the scarf, when I go back for it?  (Meet the Resident Feline, by the way.  This is Thorvald, the most opinionated cat I've ever known.  He never hesitates to let you know exactly what he thinks.)

I'm thinking I should just bite the bullet and rip it back two rows, because the longer I stew about it, the less time I have to actually knit the thing.  And at 20 minutes a row, there's a lot left to do!

1 comment:

RacineDKringle said...

Don't rip back for a mistake that he won't notice - life is way too short for that *grin*