Remote Knit Along

I started knitting for the second time in my life two-and-a-half years ago. Now if I take a trip and don't have at least two skeins of yarn with me, I become very anxious. Gotta keep those hands and that brain busy.

I have several knitting blogs feeding my Google Reader. One of these, Random Musings on Crazy For Ewe, is written by Ellen, the owner of a local yarn store (LYS) in southern Maryland. A couple of weeks ago, Ellen posted a couple of photos of an interesting and challenging scarf. The more I looked at the second photo, knit with yarn from my favorite yarn manufacturer, Noro, the more I wanted to knit that scarf.

This is the hardest pattern I've attempted since my knitting rebirth. It's absolutely not a pattern where you go on auto-knit while you watch TV or carry on a conversation. I cannot tell you the number of times I've had to backtrack a row or more to correct errors. The pattern includes lace stitches (the holes you see in the picture) and left- and right-leaning decreases (the angled blocks).

There are sixteen rows to one repeated section, and 25 sections in the scarf. Those sixteen rows are A&B (repeated four times) followed by C&D (repeated four times). Ever the geek, I set up a spreadsheet to be able to keep track of where I am in the pattern.

I've chosen Noro Aya for the scarf. Aya is a combination of cotton, silk and wool. And Noro's hand-dyed colors are a treat to the eye.

I have to admit I don't totally love this color. (I like to support LYSs, so ordered from Crazy for Ewe without actually seeing the color.) The part I don't like is the pink and the blue. I'm not a pink or blue person, although the pink and blue give it a little feel of spring (which we need right now!). I asked Ellen for suggestions, as my most-favorite color was out of stock. I told her what colors I normally wear, along with my hair and eye colors, and accepted her suggestion.

When I pulled the yarn out of the bag, I loved it. But Noro, in winding the balls after dyeing, had deftly tucked the pink and blue deep inside the ball. Had I been in the yarn store and actually seen the ball of yarn (or had I spent more time on the link Ellen sent me), I probably still would have bought it. I can't blame this lack of love on Ellen! Maybe this scarf will force me out of my box a little (she says, smiling).


The blue is an ice blue, which is gorgeous (although not so much on me). The pink is delicate and lovely (although not so much on me). And the greens and browns—totally my colors—are fabulous. I really could cut the yarn when I reached the blue part and remove the blue and pink from each skein, using the blue and pink on some project for my girly-girl granddaughter. But I'm way beyond that point now, being 170 rows into the scarf!

So I will complete it, and grow to love it. Maybe I'll even buy a pink tee-shirt to wear it with this summer! Or green. Or brown. There are lots of possibilities.

(And—really!—I could have given you better images! I coulda shoulda taken it to the basement and set up my Soft Box to take the photos. I'll do that when it's finished.)

The downsides of knitting along remotely is that you don't get to participate in conversations, make new friends, and learn from others' mistakes.

But each Thursday afternoon, as I make time to sit and knit, I'm buoyed by the knowledge that a number of women with like interests are sitting together not far from my old hometown, knitting and enjoying each other's company.