Surprise!

My next door neighbor’s son, Colin, turns 3 years old on Monday.  Until late this morning, he had no idea that his mom and I were cooking up a surprise for him in the form of a handmade scarf.  Mom said it shouldn’t be too long because she didn’t want it to wrap around his neck too many times.  She also said he preferred a neutral color – something in cream or beige tones. The main thing was that it be appropriate for a little boy.  What?  No crocheted rosettes? Guess not.

Thank you stash deities for the machine-washable aran weight Jaeger Matchmaker still in the original packaging.  Perfect color and weight.  I never gave a thought to searching for a pattern.  As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been on a seed stitch tear.  Since color was not the star here, I reasoned that texture would add visual interest. My only other consideration was that the pattern be reversible since being tied “just so” is not part of a child’s clothing vocabulary. This is what came off the needles on Friday:

Colin's New Scarf

Yarn: (2) 90 yd. balls of Jaeger Matchmaker (discontinued) in Light Neutral
Needles: Size 7US
Finished size:  36″ x 5″

I cast on an even number of stitches – enough to create an approximately 5″ wide scarf. After a couple of establishing garter stitch rows, I started the 4-row American Moss Stitch. Didn’t know it beforehand but there is apparently a British Moss Stitch the looks suspiciously like a 2-row seed stitch to me. Eh. What do I know.

After 11 inches, my attention wandered and I found myself flipping the yarn back and forth, doing the regular seed stitch and screwing up the nice diagonals I had going with Monsieur Moss. I gave myself a little break in the form of about 3 inches of garter stitch, then it was back to moss for 5 inches. Tack on 3 more inches of garter then end with a final 11 inches of moss stitch.  If you followed the math, I knit the scarf in thirds:

11 Moss + (3 Garter + 5 Moss + 3 Garter) +11 Moss = 33 inches of scarf

A cool water Eucalan bath and some light blocking turned those 33 inches into 36 inches as the stitches relaxed and lengthened.  Speaking of math, everything apparently added up correctly because I get the feeling Colin really likes his new scarf!

Happy Birthday, Colin