11/27/11 - As much as I want to just keep go-go-going on the projects I have on the needles, I truly do need something simple and fairly mindless to take with me when I go to the movies that I don’t need to look at. I spent about 3 hours today tearing through my stash and patterns that I was interested in before coming across Bonnie’s version of this scarf. It had struck me as incredibly gorgeous from the first time I saw it, and looking at it again made me want to create one as well.

12/3/11 - The scarf is going beautifully so far. I really love working on it in the movies - and so far, both movies that I’ve seen while working on it have been incredible. My Week with Marilyn and Hugo - some of the best films I’ve seen this year!

The pattern seems genius in its simplicity and definitely knit-able in the dark. I thought this yarn had a bit more colour variation in it than it appears to now that it’s working up, but I still think it’s gorgeous. I had originally just cast on the 189 stitches the pattern calls for, but I was getting more like 6 or 7 stitches per inch. Since I don’t want the fabric of this to be too flimsy, I just added on another repeat to make 252 stitches total. Now to just take in a few movies…

I must say, I’m very excited to be making such headway on the projects I currently have on the needles because I truly do want to start other things. I have a bunch of projects that would probably make for great movie knitting at some point, but not in the beginning - sweaters that will be mindless for extended lengths of time once the gauge swatch is done, shawls that will have stretches of stockinette or plain lace patterns once the initial part is done, hats that have fancy brims but boring bodies. I just want to cast on for all of those now, but I will remain resolute in my desire to finish all of these old projects first!

The name for this project comes from the translation of the colourway name, Auspicious:

“Auspicious” comes from Latin “auspex,” which literally means “bird seer” (from the words “avis,” meaning “bird,” and “specere,” meaning “to look”). In ancient Rome, these “bird seers” were priests, or augurs, who studied the flight and feeding patterns of birds, then delivered prophecies based on their observations. The right combination of bird behavior indicated favorable conditions, but the wrong patterns spelled trouble.

I’m especially excited for this since tomorrow I’m starting my new job at the CRCC - hopefully me just happening to pick this up today as a new project will prove to be auspicious in all sorts of ways! This can literally become my new lucky scarf.

2/2/12 - I love this project. It’s not even blocked yet, and it looks fabulous. Well okay, that’s a lie - it’s all curly and wonky and looks totally unblocked, but when I put it on, the colour looked AMAZING on me. It looked fabulously fantastic on me. I’m so happy Sarah gave me this yarn last winter!

So I made some changes to this. Rather than casting off when the pattern said to - I didn’t. I decided to just keep going and do a reverse version of the triangles. I really like when something is wide enough to cover my whole head, rather than just being a skinny little scarf. However, when I hit that halfway point, where I started the second triangles, I realized that I had used up more than half the yarn. I thought that the Eidos looked similar enough in colour that I could get away with just mixing in a few rows of it. So every 3 rows or so, I’d mix in a row or two of them.

That wound up not working out. When I was about 2/3s of the way through the second triangle, I realized that I was just about to run out of the Beckon…like, in a row or two. So I ripped back and started over again, using the Eidos more frequently at regular intervals. I’m really happy I did because I had just enough with both yarns for the bind off.

The two triangles definitely don’t look exactly the same - one is more green than the other. But they really compliment each other well, and I think the entire effect looks awesome. Plus…did I mention the colour looks awesome on me?

It’s 2/2, and I have 2 projects for the year completed!