Welcoming Winter with a New Scarf

Well, i guess it's officially winter here in the Lake Tahoe/Reno area. It's been snowing on and off at our house for days... that coupled with 100+ mph winds and single digit temperatures just makes me want to crawl into the bathtub and soak for hours. The cold just goes right to my bones! (and here i thought this was california... don't we pay taxes to avoid weather like this??!). To make matters worse, we're off to madison, wisconsin on wednesday - doug grew up in nearby middleton - and the weather there is even colder. I had these lofty dreams of going for multiple long runs on the middleton streets... nice and flat, low elevation... sounds like heaven! Well, my dreams didn't include shivering in my running shoes, so i guess i'll stick the treadmill (or to the couch, most likely).

Speaking of freezing, Ann Norling came to visit me at the shop the other day... i had on 2 shirts and my jacket, but was still shivering in the shop (the thermostat is set to 73, but i'm always really cold). So Ann let me borrow a gorgeous scarf that she had on: knit with Rowan Kidsilk Haze, the scarf had 5 inch stripes of 6-7 colors ... and it was knit in a tube, so was doubly thick. I loved it! I tried to sneak it away from her, but she was too astute! I resolved to knit a similar scarf myself. Well.... i didn't end up leaving work that night until about 8 - and had already turned off the lights in the shop before i realized that i would need to pick out some kidsilk colors if i was going to embark on this new project. So, as amber stood by the front door waiting to lock up, i rifled through the Kidsilk cube and picked out 6 colors that i thought would look nice together. Picking out yarn is hard enough sometimes, but try doing it with virtually no light!

Anyway, i've included a few photos of the colors i chose.... as usual, i've started knitting with the brown - and will change to a lighter brown in a few inches. I wrote about the project here, but will tell you that i chose these colors: 584, 626, 641, 589, 592, 640. I'm using a US 6 16" needle and cast on 100 stitches (per Ann's instructions). After joining into a circle, i'm simply knitting... my brain hasn't been working too well lately, so simple knitting seems to be perfect for me. I'm not sure if i'll just do 5" stripes of each color - or if i'll mix it up and do some random striping. If this weather continues, i'll likely have lots of time to knit in the various airports... who knows, maybe i'll be done by 2009! (ok, probably not).