FO: London Skyline Scarves

This was knitting by request. Some friends of my old flatmate, Anne-Marie, are emigrating to Canada, and she commissioned a couple of scarves. One for a young girl, the other for her mother. Anne-Marie specified: London Skyline, Big Lettering, Pinkness and No Sheep.

I thought I'd do the skyline at the bottom, as a sort of visual 'frill' and then a rain-like pattern through the scarf to (a) go with the London theme and (b) break up the screaming pink a bit. The letters (the recipant's initals) are only on one end, floating into the end of the 'rain' section.


I knitted them mainly on the bus - it seemed appropriate, plus I have to look at the work the whole time with doublekntting, and when I knit at home I like to watch tv/ surf the net/ talk to people. When commute-knitting, I tend to use circs, even for knitting flat. Because they are shorter, my elbows won't annoy people sitting next to me. But with the extra balls of yarn for double-knitting, the wire can be annoying, so I used a pair of dpns with point protects at the end to turn them into a set of short straights. This also meant I could use an especially pointy pair we had (a good point being very important for quite double-knitting).


Anne-Marie and I choose the yarn together and, though I was a bit concerned about quite how pink it'd be, it worked out ok. It's Debbie Bliss Cathay, which I normally avoid because it's so splitty but, as long as I was careful (which you have to be with double-knitting anyway) it worked really well. A neat, defined look and lovely sheen over the finished piece. Plus they feel really silky. I was worried it wouldn't be warm enough for a Canada scarf, but with the two layers it feels pretty cosy.


Before anyone asks, I'm not posting the pattern. But you are welcome to try to transcribe the chart from my pictures - it's pretty straightforward. If anyone wants advice on double-knitting. I said all I have to on the topic here.