It’s finished, and it’s an ode to the magic of blocking!
As I was knitting on the bus the other day, a nice man who had been sitting next to me said ‘Good luck with your landscape’ as he left. I think it’s a pattern that lends itself to interpretation. It looks like stained glass to me, but I can see the landscape (especially in these colours) as well as waves and leaves.
It certainly had a topographical essence when it came off the needles – look at those hills and valleys!
All in all, this was a nice ‘what next’ project. It took me two weeks to make, and that was as a sometimes project. I didn’t even take it on a long car ride last weekend. I *did* take it on a semi long return train journey and, for the first time in recorded history, *didn’t* take enough yarn. Should’ve taken two colours. That was the same train journey I lost the stitch marker on. Bad knitting vibes.
Once I was finished knitting, I sewed in the few ends that were left, then soaked in warm water with hair conditioner for an hour. I put it in the washing machine to spin, then blocked using long wires.
The long wires are a bit of a faff to put in, but the straight lines you can achieve are everything. In this instance it didn’t end up ramrod straight but it’s such an improvement on where it started.
I then pinned it, stretching only slightly across the width, and gave it a light blast with the steamer. I stand by both soaking and steaming on this occasion. Then I let it dry for a bit, got impatient, and turned the hairdryer on it so I could unpin and photograph. I’m clearly using extremely hardy yarns, to put up with all that.
As a reminder, this is the Topographical Scarf (Ravelry link) by MarinJa Knits (Designer’s site). I’ve made four of them now, making it my second most repeated pattern ever. I haven’t weighed what’s left but intend to use it all up in a matching (or semi matching) item – will report back.
The Crafty Yarnster 