Yarn was already wound into balls but simple enough to unwind some, match end to next instance of same colour and then feed doubled (followed by tripled and then quadrupled) strand through my hand in a big loop to confirm the repeat (and its consistency in length/sequence). Should mention that Crazy Woman is not a “symmetrical” multicolour like the Wollmeise colourways (which are A-B-C-B-A-B-C-B-A …) and thus would never work for back and forth pooling. But the colours are in a consistently spaced order (A-B-C-D-E-A-B-C-D-E-A-B …) when the yarn is laid out in a circle instead of a zigzag and so should work for pooling in the round.

Began cast on with a twist instead of a slip knot to create a smooth edge.

I find that the M1 method recommended in the pattern presents as visibly looser stitch loops in the most recent rows knitted but once they’ve progressed to about ten rows below the needles they settle down into a tidy “spine” that is visible but not glaringly so and harmonizes very nicely with the garter stitch patterning. It’s a good choice for this design.

When I could see I was close to having a full colour repeat across my live stitches, I relooped a couple of repeats of loose yarn and found the next spot that was the exactly matching spot to my last stitch, then put a tiny safety pin through the strands at that spot so I’d know exactly when I reached and knitted it. Was prepared to do this a few times until I reached full repeat but turned out I was only one stitch off the first time so one more row after that got me to full colour repeat on the needles.

One colour repeat in the garter triangle section = 106 stitches (more accurately it’s 105 stitches but since all rows have an even number of stitches it has to be rounded up). Opening would be only 35 cm in circumference and this size would be a rather skinny scarf. Also a very long scarf with the quantity of yarn I have, but a skinny scarf wrapped multiple times around the neck invariably finds a way to gap and let the cold air in. So much as I want to see it pool now!, it’s silly to make a Martina Behm with a nonfunctioning convertibility (opening too small to use as cowl) and a scarf proportioned to not insulate properly. So going to soldier on with the triangle until it’s two colour repeats wide … this will be a nicely wide scarf and the opening should be large enough to do the cowl thing. And doubled turns my 105 into an even-numbered 210, so the pooling will be that smidge more in alignment (I’m hoping for zigzags rather than spirals).

Now joined in the round and getting lovely pooling at 210 stitches.

July 30/16: Joined the second ball of yarn while still about ten rounds’ worth left of the first and am alternating rows between the two to soften the transition from one to the other.

October 23/16: Had the feeling, despite the remaining ball of yarn still looking fairly large, that I should be thinking about starting the straight border (most of my projects lately have used fingering yarn so I know better than to trust my eyeballing judgment on balls of heavier yarns). So this afternoon unwound the entire remaining ball of yarn and rewound it counting the bright orange sections (the most easily visible due to high contrast with the other colours). 49 orange sections left, at two per round that’s 24.5 rounds. Allowing for binding off and that’s 23 rounds of yarn left for the border. Was nearly at the marker that marks the spine of the triangle border at the beginning so opted to make my first turn and start the straight border when I reached it. Two border rows completed just to get it all set up and now it’s ready for me to continue the rest during workplace coffee breaks.

Bound off using Elastic Bind Off (page 170 in “Cast on, bind off” by Leslie Ann Bestor). Pleasantly surprised to discover that this bind off created a row of contrasting colour dots along the top edge which look as if they were intended to match the similar coloured dots impression created by the garter stitch purl bumps of the top border. Ended up with a 5 cm tail so we’ll call that a win at yarn chicken as well. :-)

January 8, 2017: Finished in November, worn several times in December (VERY snuggly warm!), and FINALLY had “completed” portrait taken in January.

Handy colourwatching tips for asymmetrical circular-patterned colourways: Because each colour in the Crazy Woman colourway only appears once per colour repeat (even though maroon, purple, blue and teal seem to occur twice per repeat they are slightly different shades/intensities each time while the tan is really a very much duller version of the orange) it’s easy to tell when you’re close to a single colour repeat across the live row of stitches … one of the colours will pool for 3-4 rows right in the centre while its opposite shade in the circular colour repeat will also pool at both ends of those same rows. In my project it was the orange that happened to form the centre pooling so it was very visible (second photo from bottom) while the transition from tan to purple from the opposite side of the skein formed the edge pooling in those rows. In between those two poolings the blues, purples and teals are alternating rows because the back and forth knitting has them being stitched in opposite directions in each row. Also detectible halfway between that and the cast-on is the point where I had reached half the colour repeat per row … orange is pooled at one edge and the tan-to-purple transition at the other while the centre is an alternating direction stack of the blues, purples and teals. The 1.5 repeat zone should also have some sort of pooling … most likely two spots halfway between edges and centre; the 2 repeat zone should once again have centre and edge pooling.