The Big Reveal!!!

That's right! That's our  Papa Bear Sampler Scarf  all finished. We love it so much that we have to admit we've been wearing it. The awful truth is that we may not give it away after all. We are greedy....but not ashamed. (It's really nice!)

Here's what it looked like right off the needles. Yarn barf. Just like every other knitting project, it needs blocking to look its best. We know there are as many ways to go about this as there are knitters but we like to get it really wet. We soaked this in the bathroom sink in nice warm water (about body temperature). We left it for about 20 minutes. Then we worked some hair conditioner into it and rinsed it well. We think the big thing at this point is to remember how delicate the yarn is. You have to be careful you don't let the weight of the water-y wool damage it. Support it nicely. Squeeze out the excess water gently and roll it up in a big fluffy towel. Now, stand on it. No, really! This squishes out all the extra moisture into the towel. The knitting will only be damp when you unroll it.

We were fortunate that the big square foam mats (used for exercise, we think....people do that? exercise?) went on sale over the summer. We really like them. You can assemble them in squares for shawls or, in this case, in one long rectangle. We set them up at the deck door where the light was good and the kitty wasn't. Slowly, but surely, we pinned out the scarf, stretching it slightly to open up all the stitch patterns. Again, we don't want to be rough. We wouldn't want to break the yarn at this point.

It looks great! Now, it's just a matter of waiting for it to dry thoroughly.  The kitty will sleep on it. It seems to be an unwritten kitty rule. Anything new on the floor must be put there for her sleeping pleasure. But what pleasure there could be in sleeping on damp wool, we can't imagine.

FYI here's all the wool we had leftover. :)  

We would very much like to thank all of you who played along with us on this project. We enjoyed the knit and hope you did, too. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to email us: grandmacocosdesigns (AT) gmail (dot)com ......... You know what to do with the symbols. Better yet, if you finish your scarf and send us a photo of it to show here on the blog, we'll send you a little gift as a thank you...... a .PDF file to print 2 gift cards to attach to your scarf. There's a place to include laundering instructions and plenty of room for a love note.

All the instalments of the pattern will remain here on the blog where they're available for free. If you'd rather, you can download the entire project in one .PDF through our Ravelry store

for the princely sum of $3.50 US.

For now, we'll leave you with this..................

ENJOY!