Scarf It Up

There are lots of questions that come with knitting. What yarn? What gauge? Will it fit? Will it itch? And the bigger questions, the ones that come with the merest whiff of existential malaise -- what the hell am I sitting here knitting for? What am I doing with my life? Why does my obsession/compulsion/addiction manifest itself in just this particular way? Why do I continue to knit, when I have sprained my thumb, and now have what I suspect is Knitter's Elbow?

Anyway, my question is this: Why, at this stage in the knitting game, have I become consumed with scarves? Because I really never knit any scarves at all -- except for a red and black striped one for my stepson (because he asked) and one for my daughter -- straight garter stitch (because she asked). All last year it was sweaters, blankets, lace patterns, even socks, which really aren't my thing. The best answer I can come up with is this: Holiday Knitting.


It all started with the Huckleberry Ascot, which was really a love at first sight thing -- I HAD to have the yarn, and I HAD to knit it immediately. It went fast. I learned how to make bobbles. I learned that I love alpaca. Specifically, 2 hanks Blue Sky Alpacas Melange in colorway 812 - Blue Cheese.

I finished and began the Child's Rainbow Scarf from LMKG. I bought the Kureyon for that, what, like five years ago? Now, I'm busily finishing the Rustic Scarf, also from LMKG, thriftily knit with Cascade 220, from stash. All Christmas gifts. So.

I had high hopes this year for a Christmas Cobblestone, a Wicked for my daughter, but it's not to be. I could do what my mother did one year: she wrapped up the sweater kit and gave it to my bemused father Christmas morning. Bemused, because he probably knew that 30 years later, the kit would still be a kit. And it is.

So, this year, scarves it is.