To Russia with love

My darling husband is off to Russia and has asked whether I could knit him a scarf to keep him warm.

He already has a scarf from me, in fact it's that scarf given to him on Valentine's day a few years ago that got me back into knitting and re-ignited my passion for crafts. But that scarf was knitted in a super chunky yarn and I had made it extra long so it's rather bulky and cumbersome to take with you in a suitcase. Hubby finds it too warm as well so it's barely been worn.

I agreed to make him a new scarf but this time I got him involved in the choice of yarn and the pattern and the final length to make sure this one doesn't sit abandoned at the bottom of a drawer.

We settled on a beautiful Noro Yuzen yarn bought in the sale at Black Sheep Wools. Hubby didn't want a thick scarf so that determined the choice of pattern. I would have loved to knit the whole thing in stockinette but I knew that no amount of blocking would stop the scarf curling inwards if I did. So eventually we settled for a simple two by three rib.

The yarn was a bit scratchy to work with but once knitted, the fabric isn't that scratchy at all. The colours are truly beautiful and will suit Mr Goose's blue eyes perfectly!

While I was knitting the scarf, I remembered these few lines from a book by Ann Hood called The Knitting Circle. They seemed so appropriate for this project:

"... I pick up my needles and I knit. Every stitch is a letter. A row spells out 'I love you'. I knit 'I love you' into everything I make. Like a prayer, or a wish, I send it out to you, hoping you can hear me. (...) Hoping, that my love reaches you somehow."