Chunky Scarf Love

One of my close friends came and stayed with us over New Years and introduced me to the concept of arm knitting. As a bit of an ADD knitter who has spent multiple months working on a single scarf because of other distractions, the idea of being able to finish a functional, wearable, and cute scarf in about half an hour seemed too good to be true. I had to try it. So we made a trip to JoAnn’s to grab some super chunky yarn (Lion Brand Hometown USA in Aspen Tweed). However, in true “me” style, as soon as I got home I decided to do something entirely different and cast on to regular needles instead. Classic me.

The result wasn’t quite a 30 minute scarf, but thanks to the size of the yarn and the needles, it was still pretty quick – about 3 hours total. I cast on 20 stitches and it’s just simple American Moss stitch the whole way through (for an even # of stitches: k1, p1 for two rows and then p1, k1 for two rows… repeat ad nauseam). I then gave it a half-twist before sewing the ends together. Although… I sort of regret that now. It’s an awkward length for the half-twist to lay right. Despite that mistake, I do love it and it’ll be great for walking to work in the blustery January and February mornings.

What I do not love are the needles I used. I don’t have large sizes of the Knitpicks nickel-plated interchangeables that I usually use, so for this project I had to use a set of plastic Susan Bates size 15 circs that I had stashed away, and they were really difficult to work with. The needles were fine for such big yarn, but the cord was SO STIFF. It basically kept the coil it had in the package through the entire project. My mom suggested dipping the cord in hot water for a tic and then straightening it out that way, so I’ll definitely have to try that before the next time I use them.

On a rather unrelated note, I really need to get better at posing for pictures of myself (and for the record, I still feel slightly weird posting them here. My mom did a REALLY good job drilling internet safety into us as kids I guess. But best get over it… it seems to have become pretty standard nowadays for bloggers to put a face to their voice). I felt like such a goober “modeling” for the camera! The boyfriend had to take so many pictures to get a few good ones because most of the photos obviously showed how awkward I felt… And I still had to crop my face out of most of them. I don’t know how other bloggers do it! Anybody have any tips or tricks for getting better at this? Maybe I should watch some America’s Next Top Model before I try this again… Case in point…