With urging from someone else that it would be really cute, and JUST what the intended recipient would love (??), I decided to cast on a nice ball of Rowan wool cotton, and go for it. I cast on 100 stitches. Purl one row, kf&b one row. 200 stitches. Purl a row, knit a row, purl a row, kf&b a row. 400 stitches. Continue, adding more circular needles. Remember to knit REALLY tightly, because the yarn calls for a 5 or 6, but you only have multiple circs in size 7 (Japanese size 8). Knit until the ball of lovely Rowan is finished (800 stitches). NOW add the plastic lei stuff -- hey, it doesn't look so bad. By this time there have been several repeats of the kf&b, and there are now 1600 whopping stitches spanning FOUR size 7 circular needles, with some size 7 dpns ready in case they become necessary.
A closeup of the stitches:
It's probably not surprising that it took me 3 evenings to sit through binding off 1600 stitches. I used a size 9 to make sure that I did it loosely enough, and I watched reruns of House to get me through it. I must say that purling 1600 times in a row was my least favorite part of the scarf. I did have to put it down and rest my wrists, so perhaps my purling technique is inefficient.
ANYWAY, it's FINISHED! A friend said that the picture below looks like some kind of flower on the tree. It's a hydrangea! No, it's wisteria! No, it's Ripply Scarf!
Also on the needles are eldest child's new socks -- the colors are great, but I'm not in love with the low twist of this yarn. Still, this sock came to DisneySea with me on Friday, on a bus and a train Saturday night, and in a long car ride on Sunday, I'm now on the toe.
By the way, knitting on a public bus and then on the Yamanote line? WOW, did I get some stares. I think being a foreigner dressed up to go out for a Saturday night definitely added to the "bizarre" quotient.
On the needles -- a scarf with beads. In my quest to make this, I've discovered two things: that if I don't like a pattern, I have no problem ripping out 2 feet of knitting and starting over, and that there is a better way to knit beads into my knitting than the way it's done here. The next question is: even though I'm not personally thrilled with the beads as they are here, will I rip out that part and then graft on something else? Or will I make the other end in the same way and give it away, knowing that the recipient won't care which way I beaded the knitting?
I discovered one more thing: if you go to the store to buy "some beads for knitting," you may come home with more than beads. (The beads were on the first floor, but the bathroom was on the 5th - and you had to walk past many aisles of new yarn to get to it.)
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