Last Saturday I had a crochet lesson at Wooly Monmouth in Red Bank, NJ. I started a new scarf during the lesson to practice my newfound crochet knowledge, but before I could really dive into yet another scarf I had some unfinished business at home.

I started to knit this scarf nearly two years ago. I can’t remember when exactly, but I know I had it with me during a vacation in August ’06. I decided today that it was time to finally finish it and move on. When I started, the basketweave pattern was a challenge so I could practice purling and sticking to a pattern. I also wanted a new scarf for the upcoming winter. But it was really time consuming for me, and I’ve put it down and picked it up again many times. But now The Neverending Scarf is finished and I can move on with my knitting life!

The design is based on “Mom’s Sophisticated Scarf” (contributed by Nicholas Caratzas) from Stitch ‘n Bitch Nation by Debbie Stoller. I changed a few things to make it my own, as I tend to do. The original is dark gray and has no stripe, and I used Blue Sky Alpaca instead of Karabella Aurora 8 yarn. Unfortunately, it’s been so long since I started this scarf that I have lost the tags and therefore the exact details of the yarn. Judging from their website the colors I used have since been discontinued (it just keeps getting better!). I used 4 skeins of the mustardy gold and 1 skein of the deep red. I’ve changed my mind 20 times about whether or not I like the colors. It was not intended to look like a Gryffindor scarf originally, but after awhile that’s all I could see when I looked at it. Now it’s growing on me again, but that might just be the glow of a newly finished creation.

I used US 8 (5MM) needles. All I did to spice up the design was start the scarf exactly as the pattern says, and knit up 30 rows in the basketweave pattern. Then I knit in the red yarn for 5 rows using only garter stitch. Then I started all over again with the basketweave for the next 30 rows, etc. A stitch counter is crucial for a pattern like this, especially if you put it down for any length of time and need to remember what you were doing when you left off. My end length is the same as the pattern in the book.

The yarn is gorgeous. I’m the kind of person who starts to itch if I just look at a wool sweater, I can’t even wear cashmere. But this yarn is incredibly soft and wonderfully drapey. This scarf was my nemesis for so long, sitting in a box waiting to be finished. Now I’m kind of in love with it again.