The Great California Scarf Project

Posted by Emily

In a previous post, I mentioned that my World of Warcraft guild leader wanted a scarf. Thus Shayzani's Scarf of Conciliation was born. He lives in Utah, so it was easy to find a pattern and yarn that would serve him well in the cold months of that mountainous state.

As a consequence of making a scarf for my guild leader, several other guild members wanted hand-knit items as well. The requests were:

• A warm scarf of indeterminant color for Aurorai (Ravelry link) (picture on the left)
  
• A navy blue scarf for Zindo (Ravelry link) (picture on the right)
  
• Green gloves for Fahn

The only catch was that all three of those people live in California. After some discussion, we determined that (at least for the scarves) warm ones would be preferred because they plan to move somewhere colder upon graduation. However, being from Minnesota myself I have a feeling that my idea of a warm scarf is considerably warmer than their idea of a warm scarf, even after accounting for a colder climate. Maybe I'm wrong; I sincerely hope so because I knit a couple of Minnesota winter-worthy scarves!

Now that the scarves are complete, next on my list are a pair of green gloves. I'm going to attempt the Beer Gloves pattern from the Son of Stitch and Bitch book (Ravelry link). I love the pattern and I think the fingerless gloves are a very good choice for California weather. I have a feeling that if I knit full-fledged gloves, Fahn's hands would probably melt. You know, that ol' Minnesotan knitting for a Californian problem.

Shockingly, my gauge swatch was dead-on with the recommended needle size. I'm not sure what to make of that and I'd be lying if I said was more pleased than concerned. I have yet to knit something without going up at least one full needle size and usually I go up two full needle sizes. Still, all signs point to an accurate gauge swatch, so all I can do is start knitting and hope that the gloves turn out the right size.

Once I'm done knitting this group of projects for my Warcraft guild, I'm going to work on something for myself. It's been a while since I made something and I'd really like a hand-knit hat for fall/winter! I've settled on the Trilobite hat from Knitty (Ravelry link) and picked out the yarn already (Dream in Color Classy, November Muse). It's all ready to go and I'm really excited to start it, but I'm practicing discipline first. Fingerless gloves for Fahn first, Trilobite hat for me second. If I don't do that, I'll never finish those gloves!

I'm writing this post away from my usual computer and camera, so I don't have proper links or pictures. Once I get home, I'll remedy that. In the meantime, please don't be annoyed by the wall of text!