All Scarves, All the Time!

At least in the hand wash basin that is! I am in International Scarf Exchange 5. And used Shafer Anne to crochet the Boteh scarf from Interweave Crochet. Fun scarf. Especially after I quit making bone-head mistakes. Well, the yarn is made up of wool with a small percentage of mohair. And mohair usually makes me itch. Taking the advice of others, I washed the scarf with shampoo. By the third rinse, the dye was still coloring the rinse water something awful, so I added a healthy glug (scientific measurement, dont'cha know!) of white vinegar. And no more dye run - yippee. Worked some cream rinse into the scarf, and rinsed well again.

Well, that baby is as soft as.....well, a baby! I have another skein of Anne that I wasn't happy with any sock pattern I tried. I just might try another Boteh scarf for myself. And how on earth

do other people manage to take good pictures of a scarf??? Here is the classic headless shot in the bathroom mirror. And I am currently wearing a red shirt. Since I was too lazy to change clothes, I grabbed my aran cardigan (still buttonless - shame on me!) You can't tell in the picture, but the scarf is completely wrapped around my neck. And not an itch around.

The rules for ISE state that the value of your package should be $20. Well, I spent that much on the yarn, but don't want to send only a scarf. The yarn shop I was in tonight didn't have any sock yarn that called out to me (and I don't know if my pal knits socks anyway). Maybe one of those Clover yarn cutters? That's available at several local stores. And a small tote bag or a little zipper pouch for knitting notions. That would round out a package nicely, I think.

And I bought yarn tonight! My "LYS" is just over an hour away. But she's terribly nice and does have a growing variety of yarns. The yarn I bought is actually 55% mohair and 45% wool. But I snuggled the yarn up around my neck for a bit before deciding it wasn't a scratchy one. This is a line that she personally hand dyes. Oh! And the pattern is Mr. Greenjeans from the Fall Knitty. The yarn actually has more blues than show up in the picture. And that is the beginning of my swatch there in my hand! I have no idea what I was actually thinking though. The gauge is 18 stitches per 4". So I cast on 4 edge stitches each side, and 18 stitches. Doh! I have changed my

edge stitch count to two hoping that will help. The gauge sure isn't big, but this is all of the yarn in this colorway that she has. I feel like I'm tempting fate enough as it is.

Ok....off to knit a swatch. I'd also like to knit the Sunrise Circle jacket. After seeing the picture of Stephanie in her's, I'm not sure why anyone wouldn't want to knit that sweater! I just found out today that there is a knitalong blog for the Sunrise Circle - which is closed to new people. They have very kindly opened up the info for the general puplic to have access. But it still didn't help me pick a yarn! Mr. Greenjeans, here I come!