FO: Jules' Valentine Scarf

Cross posted at Sally Comes Unraveled and Year Long Gift-A-Long.

It was hard waiting to post pictures of this, but it was Jules' Valentine's gift and I wanted to make sure it was a surprised.

This us the Besotted Scarf from Hello Yarn. I used two skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca in "Oceanic Mix" (6285) and my US size 5 Brittany straights. (Always a winning combo.)

I bought the yarn several months ago to save for myself, but it was perfect for Jules (and I have plenty of yarn for me.) Originally I had planned to make it red so it would be more "Valentiney," but after badgering talking to Jules, I decided he would get more use out of it if I used a different color. (And the XOXO cables were "Valentiney" enough.)

I started out using Classic Elite Inca Alpaca, but I didn't like the way it was knitting up. Then I decided I liked it. Then I wasn't sure. Then I decided to swatch it alongside the Ultra Alpaca and we (this includes the other knitters at The Knitting Nest) decided the Ultra Alpaca looked best.

I wasn't thrilled with the ruffled edges. The pattern goes straight into the cables, so I decided it needed seed stitch border. I think it made it worse. (For some reason, the cast on edge was worse than the bind off edge.)

It wasn't a hard pattern, but it was easy to forget what I was doing. I had to correct mistakes like this one several times. (Look closely at the cables.)

I sent the scarf with a mix cd, some chocolate and a homemade Valentine. He enjoyed the whole package.