Rules for Feeding the Stash

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Planning: Stockholm Scarf


Sometime last summer, I came across four skeins of Cascade Highland Duo in Espresso in the clearance room at Athena Fibers, and I scooped up all four skeins. I had in my mind some vague idea about coming up for a design for it, but nothing ever really took root.

One of the problems I ran into was that this yarn is very dark, and it's a single ply. So there isn't much stitch definition, and while I love how warm and soft it is, and while it's super enjoyable to knit, I was struggling to find something that would work for it that 1. wasn't plain and boring, and 2. didn't require great stitch definition.

I knit one of the skeins up into my Tidal Flatts last winter, and while the yarn was fantastic for the pattern, and I am crazy about this hat, I really don't need four dark brown alpaca blend hats. So the other three skeins sat on the "to be knit soon" shelf of my bookcase, and I kind of just...buried them under other yarns.

In my hundredth crawl through the Ravelry pattern database, I suddenly thought of Julie's Stockholm Scarf. I knit a ton of these my senior year in college-one for me (which is still one of my favorite scarves ever), and five more for women I worked with, plus a classmate's mum. (Sorry for the crap pictures-they were taken in my aggressively blue dorm room with a cheap webcam-how far I've come!)

I get a little obsessive, clearly. But I loved this pattern, and it's definitely one I wouldn't mind knitting again. And with three skeins of yarn, I'm going to end up with a nice GIANT scarf!

Well, it's not like I don't have enough WIPs already (19 at last count, including something Top Sekrit that I just started and need to have done by the 26th!!), but let's see if I can't get this done before the first snowfall (so, mid-October). Because really, what's the fun of knitting if you don't get ridiculous self-imposed deadlines, amirite?

5 comments:

  1. Oh what a lovely scarf pattern, and if you'd knit it 6 times already (impressive!!) at least you know it's an enjoyable project :D And I'm very impressed with your amount of WIPs, I feel inspired to do some casting on.

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  2. Oh my goodness 19 WIPs....that would make me so stressed! You must have an enviable yarn stash :) I love the look of that scarf - last night I just cast on for a similar looking scarf with bulky yarn and it's such a novelty after working with fingering weight for the past few weeks!

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  3. your hundredth crawl sounds like a lot of fun! If you dig long enough you find what you're looking for :) Love the color!!!

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  4. I like how there's a bit of red underlining that expresso. I think you made a wise choice of project for the rest of this yarn. The simple lace will break up the darkness.

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  5. You are one busy knitter! I think that the most I've ever had was 8 or 9. The Stockholm Scarf will be perfect for that yarn. It's on my to-knit list as well.

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