Backyard Leaves, Two Thirds Done

Post 3 of 5 for the Backyard Leaves Scarf Contest.
Leave a comment on this post within seven days of post date and you will be entered into a drawing for the completed scarf.

Complete list of rules and procedures is here. (No reason to read them unless you are interested.)

The pattern is Backyard Leaves from Scarf Style, designed by Annie Modesitt.

The yarn is Andean Silk from Knitpicks, color Lettuce.

Previous Backyard Leaves posts:

• Start of Backyard Leaves
  
• Backyard Leaves, One Third Done

The Andean Silk is a joy to knit. I'm using an Addi Turbo 7. The yarn slides on and off the needles so smoothly even the double decreases are easy to knit.

It has very fine little hairs that occasionally fluff out. Maybe the silk? I thought the yarn must be a super dog hair magnet before I figured out the little hairs were part of the yarn.

It's time to confess that I'm not knitting this from the chart. I wrote out the pattern rows line by line.

Normally I have no problem working from a chart, but I wasn't comfortable doing it for this stitch pattern.

The chart symbols are small and similar in appearance. My eyes are 60+ years old and sitting behind trifocals. Even if I enlarged the chart, there is still the challenge of knowing what a symbol means. My eyes would be continuously jumping from the chart to the key and back.

Some of the chart symbols mean one thing on a right side row and another thing on a wrong side row. This could only lead to the moment when I would discover a wrong leaning decrease about twenty rows back, and the thought of frogging this stitch pattern makes me shudder.

So I have the rows written out on a piece of notebook paper and I am carefully keeping track of where I am by making little pencil marks as I knit along. It's a comfortable way to knit for me.

Only three more pattern repeats on each piece and then I get the fun of knitting the leaf tips on the scarf ends. I'm looking forward to that.


For those who need a comment prompt, here's a question: How long does it normally take you to go from new project excitement to the "I just want to get it done" stage?