(Emperor Pine Cone project at Ravelry)
I managed to fit in an hour and a half on the scarf this afternoon. It’s almost done. I have ten pattern repeats on the second tail. The pattern calls for 13 on each side but I did 15 on the first tail. I am considering making it lopsided, so that when one end is wrapped around the neck, the ends come level at the front while the centre section remains at centre back- IYSWIM. I’m not sure though – equal lengths is simpler.
A little tension
Now. I have something to say. You will need to listen vairy carefully, because I will say this only once – and I will say it quietly, nay – whisper:
I should have swatched
Yes, it is a scarf. No, it isn’t usually necessary to do a tension square for a scarf. No, I have never done a tension square in my life, actually. I like living dangerously – and I may not have perfect pitch in my singing voice but I do have perfect tension in my knitting fingers of course (*cough*). Yeah, yeah, yeah – I know.
So, anyway, in this case, I was wrong. You heard it here first. The thing is… that centre section is knitted at ninety degrees to the old shale tails. And it’s, like, crucial, I realise know, to have the length of the pine cone matching the width of one’s tails.
What do I do? Do I frog it and begin all over again? Or do I admire the skilful way in which I tailored an inward curve on the centre section of the scarf, so that it rests snugly against the back of the neck?
Guess.
Am I being wet?
The big problem here is, of course, that the Kureyon is Dry Clean Only and I should therefore not be contemplating wet blocking it and stretching that pine cone into a better fit.
On the other hand, a Ravelry contact tells me that it is perfectly possible to wash Kureyon gently in cool water, using Eucalan.
What’s the UK equivalent of Eucalan? Can anybody make a recommendation?
SSK trauma
I still struggle with these damn SSKs. I have asked this question before and am still longing for an answer – just what is the point of the SSK and how does it benefit over a nice simple K2tog tbl ?
Please – tell me! Can I just do my reverse shapings in the easier manner, or does it really pay off to do the SSK? Horrible damn fiddly things that they are…