The Other Travel Project

You can never travel with just one project. (You wouldn't want to be stuck if you, totally hypothetically here, broke a needle or something.) In addition to the Hourglass socks, I also took along my Super Scarf.

We visited friends with children (2 boys about 5, and a boy about 3) the first weekend and they were totally intrigued with my knitting. (Ok, for completeness I'll tell you they also have a baby girl, but she couldn't care less about my knitting and doesn't feature in this story.) The boys were a bit skeptical at first that I was really making a scarf. The conversation went something like this:
3-yr old Ben: What are you making?

Me: A scarf.
B: No, you're not.
Me: Yes, I am.
B: No, you're not.
Me: Yes, I am.
B: No, you're not.
Me: Yes, I am.
B: No, you're not.
Me: Yes, I am.
B: A thoughtful silence.

The older boys were a little quicker to believe me and one of them (Andrew, in case you know them) started quizzing me on other things I had made. Did you ever make a shoe? Did you ever make a blanket? Did you ever make a chair? etc. I was surprised at how many yeses I could give to his questions and took that as a sign that he had a pretty good idea of what sorts of things a person could make.

At one point, I put my knitting away because I had made an error in the colours two rows back and had to go down and fix it. I didn't feel up to it with all the hustle and bustle going on. Ben asked what I was doing and I said I was taking a break. NO!! He was very insistent that I keep knitting. I think he has replaced David as my knitting coach. (Reference here.) Sorry, David, but he was really good; and dang, if I didn't pull it out a couple minutes later, fix the mistake and knit some more!

By Monday night, I had the first word done and had started the second side:

I had to re-graph the bottom letters ("XLVI") on the trip because I had originally graphed out XLV, which would have been correct for this year's Superbowl. Thankfully I realized my mistake before I knit it into infamy. The second reason was to make the letters curve around the place I am leaving for the patch they are going to sew onto all the scarves. (Probably so someone sneaky like me won't knit themselves a blue and white scarf and try to sneak into the Superbowl as a volunteer. Yeah, don't think I'm the only one who's considered it!!)

I asked in a couple places and eventually got an answer on Facebook on what size the patch is going to be. It should fit perfectly under the XLVI. Yeah!

I had been mostly knitting my sock, but once the needle broke I had no choice but to work on this scarf. Besides, I am getting a little anxious to have it done and sent off. Last night I finished the second set of letters:

Now I am working on the middle part which will join the two existing parts. I stopped double knitting and have started a textured stitch which I will stripe in blue and white.

This will keep me from running out of yarn too early (I hope) and make the scarf less bulky around the neck. It's going pretty well so I hope to finish soon!

___________________
We took a walk on Sunday and I did not knit while walking. For one, there was quite a drop off along the narrow path. And for two, Ben told me to "told his tand."