Finally finished: the Florence Scarf

This has been a work in progress for a long time, 9 months, according to my Ravelry notes.

I had one ball of Rowan Kidsilk Haze left over from a bolero I made to go with a bridesmaids dress. I matched the yarn and the pattern to the bride’s bolero and matched the colour to my own dress. I didn't really enjoy knitting the bolero, and am not wild about the finished product. But I had one ball left over and this seemed like the perfect pattern to use it up.

On the whole, I am not wild about this yarn. I can see why it is popular: it is lovely and soft, has a great aura and comes in a wide colour range. Because it is lighter than a feather, the ball is an extremely generous size, making it easy to justify the price tag. But it sheds like crazy! I end up covered in fluff whenever I wear one of these two, not so elegant. I also decided that I don’t love knitting with lace weight yarn, the result is beautiful but knitting with tiny needles and a thread like yarn is just too hard on my hands, my shoulders and possibly my eyes. But lace knitting is addictive...

The Florence scarf has a really simple repeating pattern and it is really easy to memorise. It works up into chevrons, making it very current! I made a few mistakes along the way, but the fluffy yarn is forgiving enough that they are not too noticeable. When this happened, the pattern was really easy to modify to get back on track, without having to rip back.

My hesitation with knitted scarves is the right and wrong side issue. Unless they are in a rib or seed stitch (not my favourite stitches), they are going to have two different sides. When I’m wearing it, I don’t want to fiddle with tying it perfectly, I just want to throw it on and wear it out. I’ve left this unblocked on purpose, to allow the sides to curl in, showing off the right side on both sides. It is a more rolled scarf than is ideal, but I like not having the wrong side on show and I think it ends up a nice width.

I wore it out and about during Me Made May, and realised OMG, it is my first knitted scarf for me! After 4 1/2 years of knitting, it is only right that I now have a scarf.