The long promised scarf and the test

Looking around on over on another Year of Projects" participant's blog today and saw that they were a scarf called "Irish Hiking Scarf". First thing I think? "This would be perfect for RJ!"  RJ is one of my younger brothers (there are 3), who has been very supportive of my knitting since he found out I can knit. He's also been asking me to knit him a scarf for "bajillion years!" (his words exactly). I looked up the pattern on Ravelry and saw there was a matching hat.

Somehow or another, the proper sized needles and 2 balls of worsted weight yarn ended up in my backpack that I take with me for Knitting Circle. Within 10 minutes into it, I had the scarf casted on and was knitting away. Only thing I had to do with sock knitting was showing off the Tiberius socks.

The yarn I chose for this project is the KnitPicks Brava worsted weight acrylic yarn in the colourway Tidepool. The scarf is going well. Before I went to bed last night, I managed to knit 5". I changed it a little by slipping the first stitch as if to purl and knitting through the back loop for the last stitch, like I do for the squares of the Blankie.  The edges are looking much neater now. 

If I can keep up knitting 5" a day, I'll be done by September 10th which is great since his birthday is almost exactly 1 month later and I still have to do the matching hat.  I was thinking the same kind of yarn, but in the colourway Cobblestone Heather with some rows in Tidepool to tie it all together.

On top of the Irish Hiking Scarf, I'm also doing a test pattern for another participant in the Year of Projects. Casting on today and hoping to finish by September 15th which is the dead line.

I'm going to have to put aside my (auntie's) sock for a bit to finish these deadline projects.

First of all, I am loving this yarn!  I was having an internal debate as to which yarn to use for this test patter and finally decided on Springtree Road Muscadine in Framboise.  I have been dying to use this colourway for awhile now and here's my opportunity.  I'm also hoping that Maya (of Springtree Road) still makes this colour because I would like to restock it in my collection....never mind, I went to check on the site and there is no more Framboise right now but I did see a lot of other tempting colours.

The pattern itself is going well however I am still at the cuff.  I believe I knit at a tighter gauge than the designer.  The pattern states 1.5" for the cuff should be at about 15 rows.  I'm about to start row 16 and I'm not even at 1.25"  The cuff otherwise is a 4x4 cuff, which I have never actually knit.  I would have thought that it would stretch out too much but it seems to be snug enough.  All that tells me, trust the designer and so far, everything has been going well.