Finished: Twilight Dipped Infinity Scarf

Yay! A non-Ravelympics FO! I blogged about this project about 2 weeks ago? Can you believe it's done already? Blocked and all! I've even worn it a few times. This scarf was quite the easy and mindless project that I managed to knit it up while watching TV and in between the quiet times with the Munchkin. The pattern itself was super easy to memorize, and in fact took only the first 2 rows after the ribbing to get the pattern down. I have to admit that it was quite the shame when I finished cause it was just that therapeutic and relaxing!

I had actually cast on this project 3 times, each time using the long-tail CO method. The first time I had completely miscalculated the length of yarn needed for the tail and had run out of yarn 50 stitches short. D'oh! The second time I had left too much of a tail and had contemplated leaving it as is before remembering that each little skein of yarn had been pre-measured and I didn't want to run out of yarn before it was suppose to. So rip, rip, rip and cast on again! Third times a charm, right? I think next time I will definitely be doing a cable cast on instead and save myself the headache. I had started knitting with a 32" length circular needle but after the first pattern repeat I decided that I couldn't work with such a crowded cable and switched to a 40" cable. Lucky for me I was using my Knit Picks Harmony Wood interchangeable circular needle set that I had bought myself for Christmas, so the switch was completely painless. Man, do I ever love my Harmony Wood needles!

Yummy colors! I love how the transition from color to the next

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it or not, but I really, really, really hate weaving in ends in a knitting project. It's my most dreaded task to do in knitting. But then a few Fridays ago Bonny from my knitting group showed me how to do a Russian Join, which has seriously changed my knitting world completely! Thank you soooo much Bonny! Russian Joins definitely make my life easier. I am completely and totally in love with this technique. I thought spit-and-splice was the bee's knees, well, it doesn't even compare to the Russian Join! I seriously cannot sing enough praises for this technique! It was so awesome to finish this project knowing that I didn't have a million ends to weave in! Pure bliss! And because of how the colors transition into the next, the join didn't have to be precise, not that you could tell where I've started the new color anyway!

Towards the end at the last 5 rows of ribbing I noticed that my gauge was quite loose and didn't match the other end at all. I couldn't figure it out at all why that was, being the inexperienced knitter that I am. That is, until I read on the Sunshine Yarnies' Dipped Infinity Scarf forum that others were having the same issue and it was due to the project being so heavy, causing the stitches to stretch. Huh, very interesting indeed. Something else to remember for next time.

I even love the wrong side! It reminds me of a Monet painting...

As for the bind off, I opted to use EZ's sewn bind off method simply cause I love it. Definitely time consuming, I mean, we are talking 252 stitches here to sew through twice. But really, I think any BO method would be a time suck when you've got that many stitches to deal with. Unfortunately I had read on the Purlbee blog that if you use EZ's method in the round then you should turn the work around and go back the way you had just knit. I did that and have to say that I prefer the other way, the way that I was doing it before, which was binding off continuously in the round without turning the work. It doesn't bug me that I did it the so-called right way, I just prefer the look of the way I normally do it and at this point I'm just being picky and a perfectionist. And I'm definitely not going to redo the bind off because of that!

Blocking this baby was relatively easy and didn't take long to dry. I did read on Ravelry though that this scarf has a major issue with rolling, which I've definitely got with mine. I tried to do some aggressive blocking the first time 'round, but don't think it did anything other than give the stitches better definition. So I'm thinking a second blocking might be in order. But we'll see.

I'm loving this scarf so much that I've even been wearing it around the house! I'm thinking of knitting up some more (I know, I know...why am I knitting scarves when spring is here and summer is just around the corner?) and am really leaning towards making one that goes from black to hot pink to a blush pink. Ohh...swoon! I also love the stitch pattern and the "dipped" color transition that I'm thinking of taking my cue from Tanis of Tanis Fiber Arts and trying the dipped technique on a sweater. But first, gotta get the sweater pattern in order...

Pattern: Dipped Infinity Scarf by Laura Chau
Yarn: All from Sunshine Yarns
Colors: Black, Hunted (variegated greens), Darkness (variegated blues), Cliffdiving (a variegated mix of light greens and aqua), Edward's Volvo (variegated whites to greys), Vampire (reds!), Bella's Truck (orange with bits of yellow), Alice's Porsche (sunshine bright yellow)
Needles: Knit Picks Harmony Wood interchangeable circular in US 9 with a 40" cable