Here is the Ribbed Scarf with a Crocheted Edging, a free pattern from Ann Budd, in Malabrigo sock yarn in "Abril". Very nice to knit with -- took forever, it seemed, on 2mm needles.
The end of the skein was much bluer than the beginning, you can see! I notice that my Abril is much different from the one on the Malabrigo site, but then I didn't quite manage to capture the color accurately with my camera, either -- it's more purple, generally, although it does seem to change subtly in different lights.
The Malabrigo isn't quite as wonderfully soft knitted up as it is in the skein, but to be honest, I haven't washed it yet, so it might loosen up a little, or have been softer worked on a slightly larger needle. Still, the color is so gorgeous I can't really fault it!
It's a nice pattern -- the main pattern is quite simple and easy to memorize. The little scallops at the bottom are really the only crochet; the other part is a variation on the main pattern, with the yarn-overs making it a little lacier and causing it to spread prettily.
I did a lot of fiddling at the beginning -- since the crochet edging is done afterwards, I worked up a sample on a crocheted chain, to find out how much yarn it would use up, then knitted the border and went back and added the crochet. Then I weighed the complete border, worked the body of the scarf until I had a ball left of the same weight, and worked the second border and the crochet edging. It didn't quite work as perfectly as it should have, and I had to rip it out twice and go back, but in the end I wasted very little, and got a 55 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch (141 x 9 cm) scarf.
In other knitting news, a pair of simple father-in-law socks for Christmas, in Meilenweit MegaBoots Stretch, color 504:
and two projects going on at the same time for the New Year: some mindless knitting -- a simple stockinette sock with the Serenity sock-weight yarn from Deborah Norville -- and some, erm, brain-full knitting, a Selbu mitten cobbled together from a couple of patterns in the Terri Shea book. The mitten will actually be a re-start, since I decided that the thumb gusset on the one in the photo was far too short.
So, yes, well, although I haven't been blogging much, I'm still knitting!
