Happy Birthday

Back in October, Redbird Knits offered free shipping internationally. Never one to turn down free shipping, I had a look on their website and found this scrumptious orange llama yarn from Peru. One I saw a picture of the yarn, I immediately thought of my future mother-in-law. I ordered enough to make a scarf for her and then put it aside. OK, every now and then I took it out to pet it. It was really soft!

Since my future mother-in-law's birthday is in the beginning of January, I had a few days after Christmas to work on the scarf without having to mail it. I decided to make it the faster way of knitting it lengthwise in garter stitch. I cast on 250 stitches on needles 2 sizes larger than the yarn called for and away I went. I knit in the car on the way to John's mom's house. I knit at her house. When his mom saw me working on the scarf, she commented on the color and that it is her favorite color to wear! I was quite happy. A lot of people asked me who it was for and I did tell a couple. The others, I just said it was for someone I know.

Anyway, I just happily knit away on the scarf and felt the fabric every now and then. I was quite impressed with how "squishy" it was, how warm it felt, and how nice it looked with the bigger needles. The day before we going to leave John's mom's house, I started the last ball of yarn. By the evening, I was almost done with the last ball. Midway through what I decided to be my last row, I looked down at the ball of yarn and noticed that it was quite small. I looked at where I was in the row. I looked at the ball of yarn. I got a measuring tape. I counted my gauge and figured out long the scarf should be. I then measured my yarn. By my rough measurements, I had enough.

After finishing the row, I got larger needles and started to cast off. I knit two stitches together every now and then, just to be safe and take less yarn. Then I measured again. I started knitting two stitches together more often. The edge wasn't quite as stretchy but then I might have enough. The yarn was disappearing. I looked at the tails from where I joined yarn. I trimmed one of them since it was quite long. I decided to see if the yarn would felt to itself. Yep, it did. This would have been good try earlier because then I wouldn't have had to weave in any ends (but wouldn't have had yarn to spare). I then knit it this bit of yarn. Still not enough. I tied a couple knots in another spot that I joined yarn and trimmed it to add to the cast off. I also started knitting two stitches together each stitch. I ended up trimming all the other ends to add to the cast off row. I then had a tiny bit to weave in. :)

Anyway, I think that the end product turned out well and my future mother-in-law seems very happy with it. Even though one end pulls in a bit, I think it still drapes well overall and should be quite warm. (Look carefully at the artwork that the scarf is hanging on, it is my future-mother-in-law's work)