After five repeats of the pattern rows (around six inches), I decided the scarf was probably wide enough – or at least that I couldn’t face another 48 rows of the pattern at 15-20 minutes per row, so I’d had enough.

I’m surprised at how far off I am in comparison to the finished size of the scarf as given in the pattern, considering I was pretty much right on in the stockinette gauge. After blocking, the scarf is only 49" long – almost a foot off the 60 inches quoted – and slightly shorter than 7" wide. I assume that the pattern length came with the blocking, and it’s true mine could have been narrower and longer, but the ends flared out so badly that I ended up blocking to the width that best accommodated them and then making the rest of the scarf match. The width is good at five repeats. The cast on and cast off edges are not identical, but the tensions are similar and they don’t look mismatched.

After soaking the scarf the longer fibers in the Elann Peruvian Baby Cashmere obscured the distinct herringbone pattern a bit, though the fabric is soft. I used just over five balls (109 yards/100 metres) – I only tapped the sixth ball in the bind off.

The results are mildly disheartening, given the time involved. If I were going to knit it again I would probably cast on an additional hundred or so stitches for the length. I have enough yarn left to add a fringe, which should visually add a few inches and may camouflage the flaring a bit. I’ll see what it looks like when it’s dry.

I’m now about a third of the way through the Henry scarf. In addition to my initial cast-on fiasco I’ve had to back out one other row, where I discovered about five stitches from the end of the row that I’d messed up the pattern. But that was a while ago, and I’ve gotten into a rhythm now. It takes about 15 minutes to complete each row. I’ve been doing a couple of rows each day at lunch and a couple more after work, and sometimes if Edmond and I are watching TV or a movie I’ll knit during that. At this rate I’ll be able to finish it in time for Christmas.

I started work on the Henry scarf pattern from the Fall 2007 issue of Knitty, which somehow ended up at the top of my knitting queue. My yarn choice is Elann Peruvian Baby Cashmere, which is an alpaca/merino/cashmere fingering-weight yarn. It’s been a while since I knitted with such fine yarn and the needles (2.75mm and 3.25mm) seem tiny compared to what I’m used to.

But last night I got the cast on done (227 stitches, which are almost doubled in the first row thanks to a yarn-over for every stitch), and I got the first three rows done on the smaller needles, which involves a bunch of slipping and yarn-overs… and I realized after about 440 stitches on the third row that I misread the pattern and had slipped stitches throughout the entire row instead of only slipping the first few stitches and then purling to the end. And after trying to back out a few stitches it seemed like it would be easier to rip everything out and start over. So there was more than two hours of work, gone. So frustrating!

The yarn is very soft but I’ve been having problems with it splitting, which I think is mostly due to the small needles and trying to pick up the yarn-over stitches to knit them. I’m hoping that once I get into the herringbone pattern that won’t happen any more.

I’m still not sure whether I like my stitch markers to dangle, but darn it, they are a lot of fun to make. I used the Crafty Daisies instructions and whipped up the following over a couple of hours.

I foresee all the knitters in my family getting stitch markers for Christmas.

Lessons learned:

• It’s difficult to find cheap, plain toggle clasps online: most are either real silver or gold and therefore pricey, and most have more embellishment than I wanted for sliding onto a knitting needle with my yarn. I found that the Better Beads brand (available at Michael’s stores, six clasps for $1.50) were the plainest. (The beads in the first photograph were also from Michael’s and come from Blue Moon Beads.)
• For head pins, it’s worth the extra money to use real silver head pins. I bought a bag with 50 silver-plated head pins from Michael’s and used those to make the markers with the black swirly beads, and got so frustrated trying to bend them into place that I almost gave up on the whole project. Today I was in the Castro (buying knitting needles at Imagiknit, my favorite knitting store) and picked up silver head pins from The Bead Store, and although they were 45 cents each (as opposed to five cents each), they bend more easily and the plating doesn’t flake all over everything. (The beads in the second picture are all from The Bead Store.)
• Miniature tools are a mistake, especially when it comes to wire cutters. I bought a set at Michael’s that had 4″ jeweler’s pliers (with the rounded nose), wire cutters, and needle nose pliers. I couldn’t get enough torque on the wire cutters to cut unless I held them a certain way, and I couldn’t hold them properly while dealing with the stitch markers (they may also have simply been dull – they were cheap). My experience improved greatly when I replaced them with real, normal sized wire cutters.
• You want to roll the loop of wire closed around the toggle clasp, not crimp it. Rolling rounds the loop, allowing the clasp to move inside it. Crimping tends to constrict the clasp and then the beads stand straight out.

Somehow I got the idea that it would be fun to start up a stitch and bitch group for my condo association, which has around 800 people. The Events Committee loved the idea, so I’m on starting November first. I think it will be fun, actually: we get to use the association’s club house, so I don’t have to go very far, and I’ll get to meet more of my neighbors. And I’ll have to find something to knit other than the fuzzy scarf I’ve been working on for the last year and a half.

My first project is going to be the Shimmer shrug from the Winter 2003 issue of Knitty. I ordered yarn from Elann – Pegasus, a cotton and rayon blend (in black, of course) – and wow, was it ever a good price at $2.48/ball. The order came to less than $25 ($17.36 for 7 balls of yarn, $6.10 for shipping). They’re a Canadian company. I wish I’d known about them when I lived there.

UPDATE: Less than 24 hours later, the yarn is already in the mail. Speedy! I only wish that Elann would send an email on shipping, rather than forcing me to sign into their web site to look at the order status – but I can live with that.