Hubby's Chunky Scarf: On the Other Half

P called a halt to test knitting her sock so she could make some adjustments to the pattern.

This cleared the way for some quality knitting time on Hubby's Chunky Cabled Scarf.

Seeking symmetry
When I returned to the Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran my plan was to get four and four of the colors. However, we only had three of the green in the store. I took what I could get (four blue, three green) and figured I'd stripe randomly.

The Lamar pattern calls for 327 yards of yarn. I'd been saying "around 300" and figured I'd be good with what I have. But over the weekend I did the math and realized 27 yards is a lot of yarn to round down, especially since I'm making my scarf wider than the pattern. Still, I should be ok. I hope.

I was knitting away Saturday night and had reached that third blue section when I stopped to consider my stripes and how rapidly I was using each color.

I knew that I had to start hitting the green harder. My plan was to flip what I'd been doing and make two wide greens with two narrow blues.

But it crossed my mind that the two ends of the scarf might not match.

This prospect was starting to make me feel lightheaded.

I was using two balls of blue held together, but one ball of green worked from both ends. This really skewed my ability to see how they were tracking, which only added to my anxiety.

What if I ran out of blue first and the other end was mostly green? Or what if I ran out of green and the other end was solid blue? How random did I want these stripes to be?

Measuring Quantity
The kitchen scale was pressed into service!

For the balls I was working with I had 30 grams of green and 25 grams of blue remaining. So they were about even, but not really since that weight was divided between two balls of blue. But did that really mean anything in the long run? After all, I had an even amount of yarn left in the bag—two blue and two green.

As you might expect, the yarn was weighed multiple times as I was dithering over all this. And it told me nothing.

The end result, and this might not surprise you, was that I put the current half on a stitch holder and cast on for the other end.

My plan is to use the four fresh balls to knit up to the same point as the first portion, which will ensure both ends match, then continue knitting them simultaneously.

This construction will force me to either kitchener or three-needle bind off the two halves together, but it's better than the alternative of mismatched ends! I figure if I can time the seam to land at a color change it will be less noticeable. Also, I don't believe Hubby wears his scarves with the middle front and center, which will also keep the seam out of the public eye. As opposed to the way I usually wear scarves, which is to put the middle over my throat and then pull the opposite ends over my shoulders so it crosses in the back.

Maybe all this matchy-matchy anxiety is one of the reasons I don't like knitting scarves. They are supposed to be such simple little projects and yet I find a way to complicate them like nobody's business.