But first to answer your burning questions: yes, man never again, fine, and done.
Need more? OK the questions were: Did you take that long train trip? What was it like? How are the family? And the last question, whatever happened to that green scarf? Yes, I know those were the questions you had, silly.
I traveled across the country via Amtrak, and it was an adventure. I don’t think it is an adventure I would want to repeat though, so let’s not go too far into it. Suffice to say the scenery was everything ever promised…especially around Denver, it wasn’t just the elevation that was breathtaking! I got a good laugh at some dinky town in Nebraska, they had one of those speed monitoring machines out, the ones that say "Speed Limit 35 Your speed: __" At 5 in the morning, with no car traffic around, the machine must have been bored because it clocked our train at 67 mph.
I took the green scarf with me and finished it on the train, then gave it to my brother’s mother-in-law. I started and finished a child’s winter hat and left it there for my nephew, but forgot to take pictures of it. I taught my mom the Diagonal Block crochet square (very pretty and lightning quick once you get the hang of it). When I got home I pretty much collapsed for a few days, then started the Yarn Harlot’s One Row Scarf pattern.
The One Row Scarf is being made for my childhood friend, Adam, who we just found again through the miracle of Facebook. Adam is a tall drink of water, six foot five with auburn brown eyes, and I just happened to have a couple balls lovely red-brown Wool Ease that will complement them perfectly. I whipped out most of a scarf in no time flat, then realized that I only had one more ball of yarn and wanted to make a hat too. I put the scarf on hold and started a hat about three weeks ago.
Normally, I am a pretty smart cookie and have a talent for anticipating and heading off problems, but this One Row Scarf pattern fooled me just a little bit. See, if you know the pattern then you understand that it’s really only four stitches, repeated so many times that eventually your fingers take over and do the work while the rest of you watches sitcoms and entertains the dog. I churned out three-quarters of a scarf on auto-pilot, then cast on for a hat and went back into sequence: knit/knit/knit through the back loop/purl. Repeat.
I got about two inches into the hat when I looked down and realized things just didn’t compute. What was wrong with this hat? Why didn’t it look like the scarf? This hat just looks like 3x1 ribbing, it doesn’t form the crinkly squares or thermal texture at all. Weird. The pattern is exactly the same, but the fabric is just not coming out right, even if I look at the wrong side it still just resembles ribbing. We might have to reconsider the hat, but I really wanted a hat and scarf set, but maybe I can just give him a scarf and he will be happy, but I really wanted the set and what in the world is going wrong here because the pattern is the SAME??
Now I know there are some of you sitting out there and you’re smarter than me. You are in the back of the classroom with your hand raised just waiting to point out my fatal flaw. Yes, I see you there Miss Granger. Please tell the class what I did wrong.
Class, as you can see I failed to realize that the magic of the One Row Scarf only happens when you are TURNING the work at the end of every row. When I did this for the scarf, all the gods were appeased and I got the quick/easy/perfect knit project. When I cast on for the hat and began to knit just as usual, I failed to take into account that I was now working circularly with the right side facing at all times.
For the novices among you (and my husband if he is reading this), the significance of turning the work can not be overlooked. When you knit a stitch, then flip the work, what was a knit stitch on the front is now a purl stitch on the back. The fabulous One Row Scarf takes advantage of this and, although your fingers are doing the same thing every row and it is easy to fool yourself into thinking it is all the same, in reality the stitches are staggered. What happens then is you have a purl on top of a knit, which makes a textured fabric instead of a smooth fabric, and subsequently results in little air pockets all over the scarf that trap warmth just like your winter long johns and keeps you very toasty.
Oh irony of all ironies, in order to have a One Row Hat to match my One Row Scarf...I would have to knit it in a TWO ROW PATTERN. Where I would normally go knit/knit/knit through the back loop/purl as usual, now I have to alternate rows with purl/purl/knit through the back loop/purl in order to make it work. Whoo, it took me a good long while to get that rhythm figured out. I had to rip out everything I had done so far (and I was three inches deep into the hat before the logic finally became clear, that’s a quarter of the hat done right there).
I finally got it licked though, as you can see, and all the rest of that last ball of yarn is going into finishing the scarf, since an extra-tall guy is going to need an extra-long scarf. I want to get this finished and sent out because he is moving in a few weeks and I want it to go straight to his old address and not get forwarded.
Next time, we will talk about Granny Squares and all the good they can do.
I finally got it licked though, as you can see, and all the rest of that last ball of yarn is going into finishing the scarf, since an extra-tall guy is going to need an extra-long scarf. I want to get this finished and sent out because he is moving in a few weeks and I want it to go straight to his old address and not get forwarded.
Next time, we will talk about Granny Squares and all the good they can do.
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