So here’s the story. This past fall, we had three giant Ash trees cut down in our backyard. They were all infected with the Emerald Ash Borer, and so they had to come down immediately. A few days before Halloween, about a week after the trees had come down, I was in the yard moving logs and raking, and I noticed that when one of the big limbs had fallen, it had knocked the cap off of an ancient septic tank that apparently used to service our house. There was a hole about 3′ in diameter and 10′ deep in the middle of our yard, and I was pretty frustrated with the whole mess. We were having a Halloween party that same week, and as I didn’t have time to get the tank filled in, I flipped over the picnic table in the yard and moved it over the hole, just to ensure that none of our guests would fall into it in the dark. You’ll never guess where this story is headed…
At the party, a while after I’d crashed and burned, one of John’s coworkers Kristen (whom I like quite a lot) was involved in some minor argument with another guest. She decided to go to the back yard to cool off for a minute, and saw the picnic table. While we do have a back deck, there were no chairs on it (it was cold, and no one was hanging out outside), so she decided she’d flip the table over to sit on it. As soon as she got one end off the ground, she slipped into the hole and the table fell back over the opening, trapping her in there. After 10 minutes or so, John noticed she was still missing from the party, and heard her yelling – a group of people had to haul her out and drive her to the emergency room, as she’d injured her shoulder in the fall. In the end, it wasn’t broken, but she did have a chipped bone and had to have her arm in a sling for weeks. I didn’t find out about all of this until the morning, but I felt (and still feel) terrible. I don’t see her very often, and while I got a chance to apologize, I really didn’t feel that it was sufficient, given the trouble this incident caused her.
So, the guilt scarf. I was feeling sheepish about giving someone a scarf in April, but as luck would have it, we got about 3 inches of snow last night: winter’s parting blow, and the perfect occasion for a pretty scarf. I like it a lot, and I hope she does too (I’ll find out once John gets home from work, but I’m feeling pretty optimistic).
Guilt Scarf
Pattern: Plaited Cable Scarf by JKA (ravelry)
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted; 5 skeins in Fired Brick
Needles: US8 straights
Mods: I really only used the pattern as a guide on this project. I kept the cables intact, but separated them with columns of twisted stitches instead of reverse stockinette, and used seed stitch instead of garter stitch. I love me some garter stitch, but this yarn lacks the texture that really makes garter special, and I wanted another non-rolling option.
Results: It’s looong. Really, really long. It was already long when I bound off, but washing it brought out Swish’s amazing expanding properties, and now it’s crazy crazy long. If I wear it without wrappnig it around my neck enough times, I end up tripping on it. That was the plan, though, as Kristen is very very tall. The color will look great on her too, and I think overall it will be a good fit. I always forget how tedious scarves can be, but this one didn’t ever feel tiresome, so I have no complaints.
Last night I was able to cast on for my Demi sweater, which is very exciting. And my birthday is next week, so if I get the Knitpicks Options set I’ve been dreaming of, I’ll have another reason to celebrate! Here’s a boring first peek at my progress on Demi:
