Fickle Fingers Finally Finished

Stash pruning has been quite satisfactory, but DeStash seems over-crowded with tempting items at the moment, so rather than add to excess, it's on to UFO reduction. First up, perhaps appropriately, is an airplane knitting project from 2005, Fickle Fingers Scarf by Gayle Roehm, pattern in Interweave Knits Winter 2005. Her innovative Spiderman gloves are in the same issue and more works, including Audrey II, may be seen here.

To see the scarf modeled, see the issue preview. Here it is folded.



By happy chance, Needlecraftique (Exit 151) had the specified yarn in the specified colorway, Skacel/Zitron Ethno in #10 multicolored. It's nicely wooly (85% merino, 15% nylon); the sort of slubby wool bouclé I like rather than a loopy mohair bouclé. I found that my fingers turned out a bit stubby, so I made 7-stitch fingers rather than the 5-stitch fingers in the pattern. My scarf has 127 fingers on each side. The yarn quantity specified in the pattern, two skeins, seems to be grossly off – a two-stitch difference per row is only an 8% difference, but I needed every last bit of three skeins for an 8" x 47" (20 x 119 cm) scarf, pretty much the same size as pattern.

Burberry has offered sideways fringed scarves for years, but despite that classic caché, the style seems to evoke decidedly polar feelings. I think the yarn texture, color striation, seed stitch, and charming fringe all come together in a pleasing, jaunty whole. But it's not for everyone, even when (or perhaps especially when) arranged as a heart or as a bunch of flowers.

   

I'm going to keep (and wear) the scarf for a while before deciding its ultimate fate. A college student I know lately has been clamoring for knit goods as well as baked goods in her parcels, but she's a deplorably conformist fashionista... maybe something (cough) ruffly would suit her better.