Caved: Chevron Scarf

Well, I finally caved in. I got so tired of starting, knitting, and ripping things that I decided that I would just go ahead and work on something easier. So, I've been working on the chevron scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts using the Socks that Rock medium weight yarn. I LOVE the colors. I have Lemongrass and Fire on the Mountain in this scarf.

I picked Fire on the Mountain (the one on the left) because it's awesome and I wanted something that would highlight the colors in that, so I picked something that contrasts strongly with it (the Lemongrass) for my other color. They do definitely stand in strong contrast to one another.


Of course I probably don't even need to say this, but my "simple" project started with me ripping it about 4 times at the beginning and restarting. It is simple. But, it still took some getting used to -- including deciding on needle size. I'm using size 6 Boye interchangeable needles.

The problem? I love the colors in this thing, but I don't know if I'm loving the scarf. I liked it in pictures. It may just be the way that I'm doing it -- too big needles, perhaps? I don't know. The last thing I want to do right now is rip it, though. Ugh. One of the problems I'm having with it may be the result of the fact that I'm knitting so loosely on the increase stitches. They are very loose looking, but I found that when I knit them too tightly there was too much pucker in the knitting and I wasn't liking that. It's already weird how much the chevron pattern pulls the scarf into such a not-flat shape. I'm mostly okay with it, I think, but I don't want to add to the problems by having puckering that isn't supposed to be there. Maybe I'll play with knitting a little less loosely on the increases and see if that helps, without creating more pucker. Of course, that requires me to rip it again if I like it better with the different tension.... Ahhh!!!!

Here it is:










Important note, I think, regarding color: the scarf instructions talk about color A and color B, and when you start the scarf, you start with color A. No big surprise. But, because you start with it, I thought it would be the predominant color. Wrong. Color B seems to be the predominant color. This was one of the rips I did w/ the scarf. I wanted the Fire on the Mountain yarn to be the predominant color in the scarf, so I started with it and quickly realized that because of the effect of the increases and decreases on the knitting, color B is actually the dominant one. So, to sort of help you understand what I'm talking about, here is another view of what it looks like with Fire on the Mountain for color B:










Lastly, a funny picture of a brazen squirrel. We have lots of cats and two dogs living here with us and this squirrel hangs out regularly on our porch. Here it is (looking a little demonic), but it is actually kind of cute: