Tuesday 21 April 2009

FO - Yo! Drop It Scarf

During my lunch hour today I finished up the last few repeats of the drop-stitch I've been working on recently. For such a simple project, it's prompting a lot of discussion in my head.

Pattern - Yo! Drop It Scarf from Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation
Yarn - RYC Natural Silk Aran, three skeins
Needles - 9mm plastic straights

First up, the yarn. I've had photos of this yarn up on the blog before in a couple of different guises. It was a pair of mittens at one point; before that it was a Branching Out Scarf. It also went through some other patterns that I ripped out before even photographing. This yarn is not good for me. It splits and has poor stitch definition. Additionally, each of the three skeins had more bits of plant in it than every other ball of yarn I've knitted put together. It was half price when I bought it, but I'd've been pretty peeved to have spent that much time picking out burrs from full-price Rowan yarn. Because it's a blend of fibers, it also didn't take up the dye evenly. Not necessarily a bad thing, but to my eye it looked odd in anything other than garter stitch. Still, thanks to the linen content it drapes really nicely.

The pattern is a basic garter stitch scarf with some elongated stitches thrown in. It was written for ribbon yarn, but works just as well for a regular yarn in my opinion. I'll probably keep it in my repertoire as an alternative to my neverending parade of garter stitch scarves. :D I used slightly bigger needles than called for, simply because I had 9mm and not 8mm ones already in my needle collection. The look is still the same!

It took me just under two weeks to complete this scarf. I've been knitting a bunch of other things around it, though. Total knitting time was probably in the region of 10 hours. If I drape the scarf over my neck at its midpoint without wrapping it, it touches the floor on both sides. Loosely wrapped three times gives a nice cowl and it reaches my knees. (I'm 5'6'', for reference!)

Final verdict - lovely pattern, shame about the yarn. One more Mission:Possible project done!

PS - Mum, the yarn is lovely to touch and wear, it's just not fun to knit with! I promise I'm not offloading a bad scarf.

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