Anybody want a scarf?

Because I've got three new ones! One was finished yesterday, one last week, and one last month, but they're all getting piled into one post because, well, I don't know. I'm pretty sure I already mentioned that I had finally finished my So-Called Scarf a few weeks back, but I hadn't taken any photos because the weather was dreary and I wanted them to be good. Well, it was sunny on Saturday, but you wouldn't know it from the photos, so the weather thing was a pretty poor excuse. Here she is:

Project Stats: So-Called Scarf

Yarn: 2 skeins (exactly) of Manos, colorway long-since forgotten

Pattern: Here

Needles: Size 11 Clover bamboo

Time to completion: 8.10.06 -1.30.07

Impressions: This scarf was a killer. I'm a pretty tight knitter and the stitch pattern + needle size I chose really hurt my hands, such that I couldn't knit very much of this at a time. I actually worked on it fairly consistently since I started it, but it still took forever. A larger needle size would have been a good move but by the time I worked that out I was too invested in what I had done to rip it all out. I'm also a bit unhappy about the patterning seen in the second skein (on the right, note zig-zags). I've never seen Manos do this, but this is the first scarf I've made with it, so maybe it's not atypical. It's not that the pattern isn't cool, because it is, but it bugs me that it doesn't match the first half of the scarf. That said, it's soft, and I love the purples, and I'm quite happy with this one! Here's a close-up of the stitch pattern, sorry it's a bit blurry...

I also made this lovely creation, in recycled sari silk:

This project was a bit of a debacle from the get-go. I got this yarn on Ebay sometime last year, for next to nothing. It came with a horrible chemical smell which thankfully goes away with some time in fresh air. I was warned that the skeins would "have some variability," and they weren't lying. When I first got the yarn I aired some out and wound it into balls, and then it sat until Super Bowl Sunday, when I decided I needed a simple project to take to a party with me. Out came the sari silk, and two sets of needles (13s and 15s) and off I went. Well, the first skein was really thick. I started on the 13s, and that wasn't going to work, so I moved to the 15s, my largest needles, making a 2x2 ribbed scarf. I soon realized that ribbing was really a waste of time because the yarn was so variable in thickness that the ribbing was totally lost, so I switched to garter stitch. Then I decided that 15s really weren't big enough, so I bought some size 17s, and that was the trick. Sadly it doesn't end there. I finished that thick skein, and the scarf was looking great. The next skein, well, let's just say that it wasn't thick. At all. So as soon as I started knitting with it the scarf pulled in and became very loose and open, which was actually the effect I had been going for all along. However, it looked ridiculous with the first skein, so after finding a third skein that matched the second in width, I performed surgery on the scarf. I knit up both thin skeins, and then, in a moment of brilliance, decided to undo the join of the first/second skeins, pick up the stitches from the second skein, and knit a bit in the other direction with the end of the third skein (are you still with me here?) to make sure it wasn't going to unravel. This worked quite well. The finished scarf got a good soaking (it bled A LOT) and airing and is all ready to wear! I like it, it's very bright and cheerful!

Last, and certainly least, I finally finished this debacle:

Oh the eyelash! Oh the yarn with flags sticking out! The humanity! Honestly I'm embarrassed to even be posting this creation. And to admit that I think it's kind of pretty, in a "man, that's a lot of fuzzy" kind of way...
Project Stats: Fuzzy spring scarf
Yarn: Frou Frou (Adriafil) and Eyelash (Trendsetter)
Pattern: Ha, don't need no stinking pattern! It's garter stitch, if you must know. I think I might have started it before I knew how to purl!
Needles: Bamboo size 9s, and maybe 10.5s (see below)
Time to knit: Almost two years (I think it was in style when I started)
Impressions: Hehe. So, as mentioned, it took me a long time to knit this, mostly because it was something I left at work to knit at lunch, and if there was ANYTHING else to knit I avoided it like the plague. When I started it, fluffy eyelash scarves were very much in style, and I was a new knitter. Those are my excuses and I'm sticking to them. That said it's actually a very pretty colored scarf, although I doubt I'll ever wear it. Maybe I'll gift it someday, we'll see. As to to needle comment above...I'm not sure how this happened, but at one point I was knitting this with one size 9 needle and one size 10.5. I didn't notice for quite awhile, so there is a bit of a bulge in the middle somewhere, not that you'd notice with that much fluffiness! I think I was working on something else and the needles just got mixed up. No real harm done, right?