Thinking of Me - the big reveal

Ok, so I haven't really mentioned my Thinking of Me scarf since I announced it was off the needles a couple of weeks ago. When I did, it looked like this:

Crumpled, and not really showing off it's beauty.

I finally got around to blocking it! For all my previous blocking adventures, I have pinned out the piece dry and then steamed or sprayed with water till soaked, before leaving to dry. This time, I decided to do it properly, and soaked the scarf completely in the sink in warm-ish water. Then I rolled it up in a towel and walked on it a bit to get the worst of the wet out, before sliding in my blocking wires and pinning to the foam letter tiles.

Such a pretty pattern, don't you think?

I stretched it out as harshly as I could, knowing full well it would shrink back a fair bit width-wise when it came off the board.

I also didn't do so well on getting the edges straight.

Project: Thinking of Me

Pattern: Thinking of You Scarf by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer ($6.00 USD from Ravelry or here)

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK in red; used almost exactly two balls.

Needles: 4.5mm circulars.

Notes: I was very happy with my yarn choice on this project. The Debbie Bliss Cashmerino is oh so soft and squooshy and very easy to knit with. The stitch definition is wonderful. The scarf itself is warm and feels lovely against my neck. I had considered putting this FO on the Christmas gift pile, because Jamie hadn't been too enamoured of the pattern when I first cast on, and I didn't think I really needed the scarf. But now it's finished, I don't want to give it to anyone, and Jamie agrees that it is beautiful.

I did make a couple of mistakes, but they aren't particularly noticeable. An extra hole has appeared in the early section of the wavy eyelet rib, and on two of my hearts there is a missing yarn over, so they are slightly wonky. But you'd have to be scrutinising the scarf really closely to spot those, so I doubt the average man in the street is going to notice!

It's not massively long, but sits quite nicely being wrapped round my neck once and then tied so the heart panel sits flat in front (I tried to take a picture, but it didn't come out that well).

If I had any complaints, I would say the layout of the pattern is a bit strange, with the instructions for the different sections all mixed up. You definitely need to read the whole thing through before casting on! But the explanation of all the stitches was good, the heart section is charted as well as written, although I worked mainly from the written directions. I did have to create a spreadsheet to keep track of my rows when it came to the heart chart; you knit from two different patterns at once when you get to the hearts, as the chart covers only the middle 17 stitches. But once you get your head around that, it's a breeze!

I also learned some new stitches on this one, in particular the central double decrease (slip two stitches together as if to knit, knit next stitch, pass two slipped stitches over), which was great as it features quite heavily in Hypernova, which I cast on after finishing this one! So my quest to advance my techniques with each project is still working.

I am also very much looking forward to working with my Cashmerino Aran and Chunky that I've got waiting for me further down my Year of Projects queue!

There are more FOs over at Tami's.