FO - Irish Hiking Scarf

Pattern: Hello Yarn's Irish Hiking Scarf
Wool: Lion Brand Wool-Ease (80% acrylic, 20% wool) in Oxford Grey #152. 3 skeins used.
Needles: Addi Turbo US 8 (5.0mm) circular
New-to-me Techniques: Cables!
Start/finish: 20 Dec 06 - 29 Jan 07

My husband, who I tend to call Mr. Tall in the blogosphere, bikes and trains to work every day. The cold and wet weather here in England is a lot different than in his native Southern California. I felt very guilty about having the car during the day while he is stuck commuting, so I offered to make him a scarf as a peace offering.

I showed him a number of patterns that I was really gung-ho to try, and we both agreed on this one. It is manly enough for him and it gave me something new to learn, so we were both quite happy.

I cast on our first day back in the states for Christmas. I accompanied my mother-in-law and brother-in-law as we took grandma to a doctor's appointment. I cast on in the waiting room, and 8 rows in, when I successfully turned my first cable, I was so excited, I quickly showed my brother-in-law. He did a god job humoring me and seeming impressed. I found the pattern really easy and fun and quickly got to the point where I just didn't need the pattern anymore.

At first, the yarn felt a bit scratchy to me, but I got used to it, and it started feeling very nice. It was a good match for my addi turbos - I felt like I could fly along on this project (fly is a relative term for me as a beginning knitter).

Mr. Tall is also quite happy with it, and got to use it a few times before spring made it's debut here in Yorkshire. I'm also really glad that I got the make-a-project-for-your-husband thing out of the way as that seems to trip a lot of people up ;)

If I was to do this pattern again (which I would like to do), I would most likely stagger the cabling in the middle row, so that there was cabling every 4th row, as I really looked forward to that part. It might also be interesting to make the middle cable a different color, and if you use two skeins of the same color for the outside cables, this may be possible, right? Again, beginner here so I'm still figuring all of this out ;)