Orion's Scarf

I wasn't too thrilled with the colors of this yarn kit when it first appeared. They were not the jewel tones that I saw on the website (damnable monitor variations of color saturation).






However, when I began knitting the yarns up in my bastardized pattern, I grew to appreciate the subtle shading. Also? Blue pretty much gets me no matter how light or muted.








And while I've said four times now, "I'll never knit another side-to-side scarf again," because they are tedious. Yet I keep on knitting them. It's the way the stitches line up and give texture to the project that seduces me. The beads were fiddly and those son of a bitches would shoot across the room as soon as look at you, but oh are they lovely in the knit.











The details:

US 3 - 3.25 mm

Yarn
Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply Toes

How much?
5 skeins = 665.0 yards (608.1 meters), 185 grams

Colorway
Orion

Bead size
Fiddly tiny son of a bitches

And Then I Fell Down Into A Yarn Swoon

I enjoy and loathe Facebook. I enjoy my friends and family on the site, I like the humorous bits, I like seeing friends' projects and hobbies. I loathe the ads. And the honey trap ads get me every time. As a knitter, you may recognize those honey traps: gorgeous items knit up in sumptous yarns.

I fell for Tejido Cowl.

The next thing I know, I'm on Jimmy Beans site. Then WEBS site. All to get my next yarn hit.

We will not dicuss the stash previously posted.

The first yarn I thought would be delicious to have was called "Garnet Brooch." And it looked jewel-tone in the many photos I saw online.

It should have been called "Scratched garnet brooch in a mud puddle." Or "Dried Newt blood." Or "Faded brick dust."

This is what it looked like online:




This is what it looked like in reality:




So I returned that yarn and dug into my stash and came up with a purchase from Midwest Stitches Conference a few years ago:








And Jimmy Beans did not disappoint in the dark skein that I ordered:










I've two other projects to finish, then I cast on for this project!

The Great Unstash Knitting Begins...

I have so much yarn hoarded stashed in only one to a few skeins, that I
a) could only make larger items of knitting if I chose to only knit blankets
b) was motivated to wear multitudes of scarves, hats and mittens.

Neither choice is something I wish to do, so the next choice is to pick persons that will not only appreciate receiving the hats, mittens, and scarves but also wear them. And take care of the items as they will not be made of inexpensive yarns.

I jumped into the stash and pulled out quite a few sexy yarns for persons identifed by the standards listed above. The first was this gorgeous deep blue, hand-dyed, spun with silver strands fingering weight yarn: Dream in Color Starry Night. A discontinued yarn (which made me want to hoard it until my death, and then bequeath to some deserving soul who would also hoard it until their own death) which was wonderful to look at as it was to knit.

The scarf is knit from a combination of four patterns, none I liked enough to just knit an entire scarf.

It starts out with quite a few rows of garter stitch, followed by two rows of Turkish stitch or Turkish lace (it also goes by four other names). Then the garter stitch rows slowly decrease so that the scarf ends in just Turkish stitch.

I didn't want to end it in just a lace panel, so I used decreasing rows of garter stitch to a point. Then I used crocheted shells for the finished edging (I know so little crochet, this always makes me feel accomplished).
























So, the details:

Needle
US 9

Yarn
Dream in Color Starry

How much?
1 skein = 450.0 yards (411.5 meters), 113 grams

Colorway
Romeo Blue