Get ready, set, Goooooooo

Or maybe not.

I did not work on Cassie's sweater today.  I really ought to have, but the weight of Mrs. Bob was on my mind.  What do I do for Mrs. Bob?

I started to cast on.  First I cast on 300 stitches.  But, is 300 stitches the right length for a scarf you don't want to be a simple rectangle and where you are thinking a crescent shape with a border would be great, but you want it to be more firmly knit that Bob?  

I had no idea.  I took the stitches off.  

A shallow triangle seemed like the next step.  So 2 garter stitch border?  One?  Increases open or closed?  2 row stripes?  Or a gradient, light to dark?

Gauge?  What gauge?  Those needles looked to big, even though they were exactly what I knit Bob with.  And the next set?  Too small.  Just because.

I took those many tries off.

I played with these 2 ideas a couple dozen more times.  The end of the yarn was getting pretty fuzzy and the two shows I planned to watch this evening were well under way.  I did not want to run out of time and I wanted a good start on the project tonite.

So.  I thought.  And thought.  And thought again.

And thought about what things I have seen in the past out of the softest of alpaca yarns.  What did it do well.  What did it not do so well.  

Well, this stuff is almost too soft to hold any real structure.  Even a single rib is going to be iffy. The fan of the scarf I was thinking of? This is really the wrong yarn.  The fan would collapse and the scarf would pull through in a instant.

I also thought about what my goal was. This is a scarf for a woman of a certain age who, like me probably gets a chill from that little bit of open at the top of her coat collar and down the back of her neck, but not so thick as some scarves that push the collar out of place.  It didn't have to be long.  In fact, short is probably better.  Like a lot of women of a certain age, she might be bossomy.  Hey, some of us get that way as we age.  Everything just thickens and sits... different.  Yeah, that is what I will call it.  The last thing we want is a bunch of extra thickness at the front of a coat pulling things tighter than we prefer, no matter why things are...different.  Short is probably the way to go.

So, something to cover the front neck gap and still be not too wide on the back of your neck so jackets sit right.

Aha.  I found a solution.  But I will tell you about that tomorrow. suffice it to say, I knit a start, it looks fantastic and only the cold light of day will tell if I am going to keep it.

but I live in hope.