Just Enough Ruffles

I have a very pretty soft gray scarf knitted out of Malabrigo in Laura Chau's Just Enough Ruffles pattern.  I've always liked it.  Its ruffly, but not overwhelmingly so.  The yarn is gloriously soft and snuggly.  It is just the right length to wrap around my neck a couple of times and tuck the ends under for superior warmth on a blustery day.

I didn't knit it.  I know who did though and she has a knack of finding the most interesting stuff on the web.  She donated the scarf and I snuck it out from under my boss' hands in a silent auction fundraiser the store does for the Alzheimer's Society.  (I'm tricky like that, but only in silent auctions.)

I bought the pattern because I knew that someday I would want another.   

Along came the Llama and Silk, the yarn without a pattern (you know where this is going, right?).  Though I tried several things, nothing felt right till I started knitting this pattern's interesting short row shaping that gives it that nudge towards brilliant design.  

Llama Silk is a chunkier yarn than the Malabrigo the pattern is designed for but it has the right touch of softness.  I have no idea how much this is going to affect the finished size, but I have plenty of yarn and I am very willing to play.  

Or I was till I got to the part that says '600 stitches' . The designer seems to be flinging that phrase about rather blithely.  Casually even.  

I was having a really good time till I got to 600 stitches.  

There is one good part.  After the whole 600 stitches fiasco, there are only a very few rows.  Just enough for the ruffle to gain some depth and an appropriately ruffly appearance.  

But still.