Happy Accident

I promised myself that when all three of my kids started school this fall, I would treat myself to a blog. (I have to say, that is a mighty strange sentence.) Now it is the end of October and I finally made it happen. My youngest just started kindergarten, which I still cannot believe.

Currently on my needles is my new scarf for my brown leather jacket. My local yarn store in Billings, Montana, Wild Purls, commissioned a unique colorway from Lorna's Laces for Fall, called "Bear Eating Berries". Using one strand of the sock yarn and one of Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool (color 002), I cast on 25 sts.

Row 1: *k3, p1; repeat from * to last stitch, k1

Repeat row 1 until scarf is desired length.

After one hank of LL (I used a partial ball to start with of the Silky Wool, so ignore that as a gauge), the scarf is approximately 50" long and 5" wide slightly stretched. Broken rib is one of my favorite pattern stitches because it looks so difficult, yet is so easy I feel like it is cheating. Just like cables. They seem like cheating because are so easy and look like the Cirque de Soleil of knitting.

So, here is the scarf in it's present state:

The combination of these two yarns absolutely floored me. I like them both individually, but together, I L . O. V. E. them. I quickly decided to knit matching mittens:

The pattern is based loosely on the "Easy Mitten Pattern" on page 134 in the One-Skein Wonders edited by Judith Durant. I knit 3" of 2 x 2 rib in the size large, increased 4 stitches as stated in pattern, knit 1.5" in stockinette stitch. At this point I was ready for the thumb and followed the pattern from then on.

After I finish the mittens I will use every last inch of yarn for my scarf. It is getting cold in Billings and I look forward to wearing it.

This project made me want to dig through my sock yarn stash and start pairing it with anything and everything. I wasn't sure those two would do well together. Instead, they looked like they were made for each other. Each highlights the other so well. May that be true for other areas of my life as well.