The Scarf that Knit Itself

Per the requests mentioned in a previous post, I was needing to make a scarf for the Matador's birthday last Sunday.(I had just finished Broseph's scarf, and frankly was not in the mood to knit any scarf, for any guy, any time soon...still what has to be done, has to be done.)

The Matador had requested a black scarf. He is a big guy (read as tall, not wide), and so would need a relatively long scarf. Also, being about to turn 19, and very guy-ish, he was only going to be satisfied with a plain boring vanilla scarf. Nothing fancy, no color work, no detailing. What was stretching before me was essentially miles and miles of colorless and mind-numbingly boring knitting.

Berkeley went with me to Knit This, Purl That...although how I am able to convince non-knitters to go with me to LYS's is beyond me. I had decided that I wanted to whip this thing out as quickly as possible, and that meant one thing: CHUNKY YARN. (However, I had to bear in mind that if it was too chunky it might border on the girly, and therefore be unacceptable.) After looking at literally every skein of yarn in the shop, I decided on Brown Sheep's Burly Spun in Dark Charcoal. It was chunky, but it was single ply, which seemed to up the masculine factor. It also had a wickedly cool name...I mean, what guy doesn't want to be "burly"? Finally, by doing a dark charcoal instead of a black, the scarf would be slightly more interesting.

I knit it up on size 13 needles in a 1X1 rib. (That way it wouldn't roll, but would be a little slicker than a straight garter stitch scarf.) It took me, I kid you not, 2 movies and a tv show to finish. I worked on it during the Wednesday teen movie at the library, and while watching another movie with Blondie at home, and one episode of Biggest Loser. This scarf literally knit itself. (A huge relief to have a project that actually didn't fight me!)

I gave it to Matador at his birthday party at Round Table Pizza after evening services. He immediately put it on, and had a picture taken in it. He also wore it the rest of the night. (The next morning, he had made the scarf picture his new profile photo on facebook...after carefully editing me out of it!) He even sent word to me later in the week that he had worn the scarf every day since he received it.

I love it when projects actually turn out. I love burly spun wool, it was an absolute joy to work with. And most of all, I love it when people enjoy the hand knits I give them.