Purl Soho Diagonal Twist Scarf

There is nothing more annoying than a completed blog post vanishing into the black hole.  Except when it does so in Ukrainian.  In Thailand I managed to switch my blog back into English but I can't do it here and it's driving me crazy.

This is the Diagonal Twist Scarf from the PurlSoho website, modeled by Camille and Aiesha.  It's a free pattern and once you understand the 4-row repeat you don't need much help.  After making one housemate a scarf before her departure, I offered to make my next housemate a scarf too!  She chose the colour.  The wool is a Turkish blend: Valencia Lavanda: 43% “luster wool”, 7% angora, 50% acrylic.  I know that a lot of beautiful yarn is from Turkey but the options available here in Ukraine always seem to be somehow the ugly stepsister versions...but anyway this was easy to work with, is soft, and has a nice shine to it.

The yarn says to use size 3.5-4.5mm needles, but I used 5mm.  I wanted the scarf to be thinner than it looked in the pattern.  I also made it narrower - 46 instead of 66 stitches.  (It has to be a number that fits both elements of the pattern, basically (x-2)/2 must be an even number, that's all.)  I was worried if it were too wide, I'd never finish it.

The pattern is easy.  It's not fast though.  I liked learning the skill of knitting into my back stitches but after, oh, 20 cm I was bored to DEATH and the departure of my housemate was good stress to keep going.  Also her excitement!  There's nothing like a person who is totally ecstatic to receive your project!  Because of the boredom I would not recommend this scarf unless you really love the pattern.

Like what is that broken button between floors 5 and 6?  Just asking...

Camille insisted on her photoshoot in the elevator.  Our apartment stairwell, and elevator, have a lot of personality. 

With my thinner yarn the scarf curls up a lot.  I blocked it, I think even properly, using a yoga mat and some flag pins from work.  That lengthened it about 15cm.  Camille is really happy with the result, even with a certain hole in the middle where I mixed up the pattern.  The scarf is as long as a yoga mat : )  I guess about 5 feet.

I have one more promised scarf in the pipeline and I'm really hoping it is more interesting than this, but I'm going to finish my sweater first!  My short cable knitting needles finally arrived!  I do think that making scarves has been a great way of improving my knitting ability because it's kind of no stress - it doesn't have to fit perfectly and you see quickly how the pattern works.  Scarves also can use more complicated repeats than I'd be willing to use in a sweater, without seeming overwhelming.  My sudden departure into knitting has been borne of necessity but I'm starting to enjoy the results despite the frustration of waiting for each project to get done.

My project is on Ravelry too.