Bed Knitting

What does a knitter do when sick? Well, I like to complain and get a lot of sympathy from the bf, but I also like to knit a little here and there. This week's project? A lovely scarf for one of my knitting buddies. Five repeats into Backyard Leaves (from Scarf Style) and I'm loving the pattern. I have it basically memorized, so maybe I'm not sick but rather developing some sort of super-human powers. My powers did fail me at first though when I was reading both the RS and WS rows from right to left. Doh! I was wondering why I didn't see any leaves. Thankfully, I noticed what I was doing after the seventh row, so not much time lost there. To be honest, I thought this pattern would be a little trickier, especially when it comes with the foreboding warning that I should practice the slip-stitch border on a swatch. umm, why? Am I missing something here? I also found it useless to use stitch markers, this isn't the sort of pattern that you have a repeat x number of times in a row.

Knitting for another knitter can be tough though. Every knitter, I think, appreciates something handknit especially for them, so they are going to like it no matter what, right? Ok, maybe not. But the gift should still be something interesting or something they would knit for themselves, if their queue wasn't filled up or if they had the pattern. I'm not saying a pattern needs to be something overly complicated, but when it isn't you need to think about the other factors in the gift. Like I said, this pattern isn't incredibly difficult or customizable (other than length) which really makes my yarn choice the focus (for me!). Of course, I started to freak out, is the color right? Will she hate it? Will she never wear it? Is this her least favorite yarn? I had my heart set on using DB Cashmerino in a nice green, an apple green in fact. This is the closest I found. In the store it had hints of apple, I was told it was apple even, but this is one of those colors that just changes depending on it's mood and the lights it's under. To make matters more confusing let's look at Elizabeth's apple green here and here. Notice that in one it looks like mine and in the other it doesn't. What kind of voodoo did Debbie Bliss conjure up here? Fortunately, the giftee was happy with my choice so onward with the leaves.

eta: I'm making it sound like this pattern is oh so easy and perhaps boring. Far from it! I think the "easy" part comes from the pattern eventually becoming intuitive. Just by looking at the row below you can tell what you currently have to do. The pattern isn't so fussy that you get lost within the row either. Boring? Nope, no monotony setting in here. Each row is different enough to keep your attention, while the length of the repeats makes you feel as if you are constantly doing something new. I just happen to think that yarn and color choices are extremely important, especially when knitting for another knitter. BTW, one skein of DB Cashmerino can get you into the seventh pattern repeat easily.