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Koigu Linen Stitch Scarf, Again

A while back I talked about the Koigu Linen Stitch Scarf.  I even showed you my work up to that point. After the post, my friend Karen said she liked the colours and would like to commission one for herself. Well, no need to commission something there Karen, I already have just the colours you want on my needles.  So this is how the Koigu Linen Stitch Scarf left the back burner after months of neglect and moved to the hot front burner.  (I'm motivated when I know who will get something fresh off my needles.  So Karen, thanks for the rekick-start.)

If this scarf was going to be a gift it seemed appropriate to look at my previous work, I mean really closely look at it.  It is one thing for me to be content with something if it is for me, but if I'm giving it away and people will be attributing it to me, I want to have my best out there.  My previous work on this scarf was not my best because frankly I had been sloppy.  Although the stitch was easy, it was new to me.  A sensible knitter would have done a small swatch, something that didn't include 450 stitches to become familiar with the look and feel of working the pattern.  But did I do a swatch, no, because the stitch was so easy.   After several rows of knitting the entire length of the scarf I did figure out what I was doing, but up until then, well let's say my developing skills showed.

It is a bit hard to admit you don't have the attention span to be able to focus on knit one, move the yarn to the front, slip one, move the yarn to the back repeat; then on the wrong side purl one, move the yarn to the back, slip one, move the yarn to the front etc.  If you do it right there is a rhythm to the process and it's easy to identify the slip stitch.  But my mind obviously wanders, I have concrete evidence this is a problem for me in this scarf.  (In my own defense it does take 30 minutes or so to complete one 450 stitch row and there are now 23 rows complete.)  So after the close examination flubbed stitches showed; and it was only those sloppy bits that I focused on. 

There's only one solution to such a situation, it required frogging the entire project.  Under normal circumstances this isn't that big a deal.  One rips out a few rows and then wets/steams the yarn to reshape it.  Here's a photo that shows the difference between frogged yarn and yet to be knit yarn:

The frogged yarn is on top
See all the ridges and/or bumps on the top yarn.  Generally it is really important to get frogged yarn smooth before you reuse it because the two types of yarn knit up differently.  However, in my case, I wanted to take advantage of this difference.  Why, you might ask?  The scarf requires after every row that you cut the yarn in order to create a fringe as you go.  So once you rip out the entire project there are lots of pre-cut lengths of yarn that you want to be the right size when you knit it up again.  With this particular yarn the ridges, wiggles or bumps soften the yarn so my pre-cut length is more than enough to complete the row.  If I try to straighten it out I might just not have enough yarn  (I know this is counter intuitive, but I tried it both ways and find the ridges work better for the way I knit.)  Thus I avoided the whole Russian knot experience to lengthen the fringe, because as you know tying a knot would not be an option on fringe or ever, but especially fringe.  Having said all of this, I do recommend straightening pre-knit yarn because under almost every other situation you'll be more satisfied you did.

So here's the scarf again about 50% complete.




It now sports no obvious mistakes, at least to me, and really, this is all about suiting me.  Karen may have been quite contend with the previous version, but then she'll never know about it.  I have had to take segments out, redo them, take them out again and so on, but in the end I think all mistakes have been found and fixed.  Within another week or so the entire enterprise should be complete and another WIP off the list!   The bad news about this is the wallflower will be the only major thing left on that list and that means it won't be easily avoided.          
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