Another WIP done:

Pattern: Made it up as I went, inspired by ‘Lane’ from Vogue Knitting Holiday 2006
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Pure silk, purple overdyed with navy silk painting yarn

The pattern this was based on was on the front cover of that issue of VK, but I got rid of my collection of VK a while ago because I found I didn’t tend to knit much from them, and the few patterns I’d used were often badly written and full of errors. But I didn’t really need a pattern. The idea is very simple: knit tubes, braid them.

I had only two skeins of the yarn so I aimed to knit a smaller scarf anyway. I knit them into a 10 stitch tube then divided it into five lengths, leaving a little extra for the end sections. I put the stitches of one end of each tube onto needles and knit the end section, using kitchener to bind off. Then I braided the tubes before finishing the other end in the same way.

I’d read the comments on the pattern from other knitters who’d made this project, so I was pre-warned about how boring it was to knit. It is mostly a lot of i-cord knitting. I probably spent six or seven nights just knitting i-cord – 3 to 4 hours a night. But by the time it started to get tedious I had a head cold and wasn’t capable of anything more complicated. I don’t think I could have endured much more i-cord knitting by the time it was done, however, so I’m glad I only had the two skeins of the yarn.

Braiding shortens the tubes considerably. I wound up with a fairly short scarf, but long enough to go around the neck and cross ends. But that’s made up for by it being thick and cushy. Being 100% silk, it’s soft and feels lovely on the skin.

It’s a pity the pattern is so boring to knit, really. I like how it looks and would like to make a wider, longer one out of wool or alpaca. Or attach a lot of tubes without braiding, then make another long one and weave it. But you’d want to have an i-cord maker so you could churn out the tubes quickly.