FO: Alaska Scarf
It’s been a whirlwind few days since we returned from our Disney Cruise to Alaska. Our first days home were a fog of jet lag and bad colds (we all came down with what we affectionately call the Disney Disease - one or all of us gets sick at the end of every Disney-related vacation). All while I was preparing for my first pattern release, of course.
But before the cruise, I was on another mission. And that was to finish a truly epically long scarf before we left.
When we were at the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival, my daughter fell in love with the Pan Fran Knit Co sock yarn in Rainbowland. She declared it would be the perfect Alaska scarf. She wasn’t wrong. The colors are soft and gorgeous and there are perfect little flecks of sparkles that the sunlight really picks up in a beautiful way. The rub was that she wanted it to be VERY long, and I needed to make it in less than 2 weeks, all while working regular job, starting a business, and preparing for vacation.
I cast on 35 stitches with a size 3 needle and started chugging along in garter stitch. It is a little narrower than most scarfs, but I knew that she was after maximum length, not width. She wants to wrap it around her neck multiple times. (Though I teased her it was going to become a Tom Baker scarf, a la the Fourth Doctor). If you follow my on Instagram, you saw a picture of the scarf in progress.
I knit and knit and knit. My fingers started cramping up. I was trying to get in rows any time I could. During a lunch break, having coffee in the morning, watching TV at night. I kept having my daughter try it on, and she kept saying, “It needs to be longer.”
It came to Thursday night before we were to leave VERY early on Saturday morning. I was having dinner with some of my friends and knitting along. I was very, very tired of knitting garter stitch. I figured it was surely long enough by now. I brought it home, and my daughter again asked for a few more rows. I did about 5 more and cast off. I measured it at a whopping 80.5”. I told her it would definitely stretch to an even more impressive size after washing and wearing. I gave it a quick soak with Soak and then laid it out to dry. By Friday evening, I was ready to carefully roll it up and pack it away to take on our trip. And it was a truly beautiful scarf to wear in Alaska.
Somewhat hilariously though, it was actually really warm in Alaska. She did wear the scarf a few times because she loved it, but it was not necessary at all. The temperatures that I read on the weather app did not seem like it would feel that warm, but with absolutely gorgeous sunshine bearing down on us, it was very nice. It only rained on us the day we boarded the cruise, and every other day was fantastic.
Which just means we had better views for pictures. :-)