Christmas Knitting.

The last week before December 25, I was  knitting  a hat and scarf for son #2's girlfriend.  You might remember that I was given specific instructions. Black hat.  Slouchy tam style.  Not a toque, not a  beret  with a sharply-folded crease.  Scarf to be purple. Whew!

 I had purchased two skeins of  deep purple Fresco at Ewe Knit, a lovely, new, yarn store on Markham Street in Toronto.  Very fine weight and a luscious combo of merino, alpaca and angora.  Once the knitting commenced, I soon realized that two skeins would not  a one foot by  seven foot scarf make. 

My first alternative was to toss the Fresco and haul out my purple Lamb's Pride Worsted,  leftover from Vignette.  Only 3 or 4 starts later, did I realize that nothing I was knitting spoke to me.  Nothing I tried seemed 'haute' enough for son #2's  lovely Lady of Spain.

Ravelry to the rescue.  There I spotted Ridge & Furrow Scarf.  It appealed to me   - a lot.  But not being totally purple, would it appeal to the Lady of Spain?  The pattern suggested using 19 colours in addition to the main colour.  Main colour, in my case, to be purple.   In my vast stash, I could only find 14 colours that appealed to me and looked good with the purple.  So 14 it was.  The scarf is gorgeous.

 

 It is one of those stitch patterns that look good on both the right and wrong sides.

The hat was opened first and was declared to be "Just what I wanted."  Then came the scarf.  My pre-amble to the opening was that if she didn't like it, my feelings would not be hurt.  But Lady of Spain loved it!  Of course, my camera was buried at the bottom of my suitcase.  Peter did take a couple of shots  with Lady wearing the scarf and if he remembers to send me one, I'll post it on ravelry.

PS - Peter loved his Nifty Shade of Grey scarf too.  He, Lady and I  went for a post-dinner, late-night walk along Toronto's harbour front, all wearing Brenda-knit scarves and hats. A great Christmas gift to me.