The Scarf That Started It All

Ok, technically it was a teeny sweater that started it all. Or, waaaay back in 1997, a neighbor's knitted hat that started it all.

But this scarf is where I really caught the bug.

I had been reading and knitting and reading patterns and knitting and learning as much as I could--absorbing this craft in great theoretical gulps--and I wanted to learn to cable. I bought two skeins of this brown Lion WoolEase and went to work on a cabled scarf of my own design for M.

What I love about it:
1. I designed it.
2. M will wear it. He likes it.
3. I love the chocolatey color. I've since learned that all the cool knitters despise WoolEase the same way the cool girls at school, wearing their REAL Keds, despised the imitation Keds from ShopKo, but it's cozy, was an inexpensive tryout, and gave me cable confidence. Not bad for $5 at Jo-Anns.

What I'd change:
1. the seed-stitch-to-cables transition is a little, um, ruffly. Since it was my first cabling experience, I didn't know about the whole pulling in thing. Next time I'd just start in the cable pattern unless it were a scarf for a woman.
2. I'd figure out how to make it reversible, an important scarf quality about which I was semi-ignorant. Melissa Leapman's new book shows how to do this. I don't actually own this book yet, but, oh yes, it will be mine.