A Third Ribbed Angel

The weekend actually saw the completion of two projects. In addition to the lace scarf, I also finished a scarf for John. For anyone who has been following the story of my husband and what he will and won't wear as far as knitted items are concerned, this might come as something of a surprise. But becoming a public transportation commuter has changed his tune a little bit. Waiting for a bus or walking through the windy city corridors to work means that the husband gets quite a bit more time in the cold. So in addition to the headband (which he wishes were thicker) he also expressed interest in having a scarf to help keep the cold out.

Last year I had purchased 4 lovely little skeins of Lorna's Laces Angel (a lambswool and angora blend) in the Pewter colorway (Pewter is a lovely color, mostly solid grey with undertones of a mauvy-lavender color) -- a decidedly manly colorway meant to become a soft and warm but manly scarf. But he was so adamantly against the whole scarf concept that I sighed heavily (as I usually do when thwarted in the knitting realm) and gently tucked the lovely little skeins into my stash in the hopes that someday the right person or project would come along for them.

So you can imagine how surprised I was when the issue of scarves came up. I dug those 4 skeins out of the closet and did a quick poll to make sure that they were color and softness acceptable. When they passed that test, I quickly cast on for my favorite simple ribbed scarf

K2 P2 Ribbed Scarf in Pewter Angel

If you want a quick but luxe gift for someone special, this scarf is literally one of those projects that you can finish in a day of dedicated knitting. Using a little bit larger needle than you normally would for a worsted weight yarn means that the angora has room to bloom and be soft and airy, but you don't end up with something too lacy to be worn by a picky guy. The Pewter colorway also, I think, works very well for this scarf. You can definitely see the subtle variagations, but they don't overwhelm the scarf -- in fact, I think, when combined with the ribbing, they help to create a very sophisticated texture. The final length of the scarf is just over 4 feet -- but once again, this works out well for the man in question, since he didn't want a long scarf that would fall past the bottom edge of his leather jacket when he tucked it inside, nor did he want a lot of extra bulk.

The scarf got it's first test drive today in the cold, windy Chicago November weather and got a thumb's up for warmth, softness and wearability. So even though it was kind of grey outside, I had a nice sunny feeling all day long.