Two Scarves, No Waiting

The brioche-stitch scarf is coming along nicely. Once I get brioche stitch going I find it completely mindless, as should I forget what I'm doing next a quick look at the work reminds me.



One of the charms of brioche stitch is that it closes up after the first few rows, forming a deep and squishy rib — at least that's what it does if you use a smooth, uniform yarn. In this scarf I'm using a thick-and-thin bulky wool yarn and a brushed mohair yarn together; neither of them wants to behave in an orderly fashion, so it's an interesting look. Ordinarily I'm not big on textured yarns as I feel like I'm cheating somehow, but I'm willing to let them do at least part of the work in this case.

Robin asked me at knitting this morning to post the pattern for this scarf; rather than reinvent the wheel I'll refer you to the instructions for two-color brioche on the brioche-stitch site (the Internet is such a wonderful thing). My scarf is 29 stitches wide, counting edge stitches, which are necessary in flat brioche.


Meanwhile, I've been working on a pattern for a second scarf so I won't have to carry those two big cones around (although I could just wind some yarn off, the biggest advantage of working from cones is having to weave in ends just at the beginning and the end, and I don't give it up easily). I really like the look of a braided ribbed cable (ribbed, and therefore reversible), done in sock yarn on size-8 needles so it has lots of give. I tried a 1x1 rib on the left, 2x2 on the right. The 2x2 looks more cable-y, the 1x1 more subtle; I haven't decided which to use for the scarf yet, but I'm leaning toward the 1x1. So that will be my portable/commuting project for the next week or so.