All Wrapped Up

My best friend, D has been eyeing out my knitted goods ... that's amazing (for her) since as far as I can remember (and that's been a very long time now), she's always mocked me for my love of knitted goods, particularly since we live in a very warm place (though that has never deterred me though from loving and buying knitted goods! ;)).

I think that now we're much older (in addition to the simple fact that she can generate less heat than she used to) and that she travels to cooler places now, she (finally) understands and can appreciate knitted goods. :P ♡

So, like the sucker I am, I offered to make her a scarf - something relatively "easy".  I don't know why I foolishly thought that making a scarf for D was going to be easy since my D is never easy! :P  First, we spent months picking and discarding patterns until we finally settled on this pattern: Patons Textured Stitch Wrap.  It looked wide enough to be cozy and comfy; it had enough interesting texture on it so it wouldn't be boring (for her) and there was nothing to "holey" to keep her curious fingers from stretching out the holes and making them bigger than they should be (yes, my D is really a 3 year old ... maybe a 5 year old on her good days! :P).

Then it was time to search for her yarn.  My D is the pickiest creature on Earth so, I knew she had to pick her own yarn or else my knitting would be for nought.  So, I took her to my fav yarn store and told her that she could pick any colorway from Malabrigo Rios collection since it was:

1. a natural wool product (something I know she wanted (versus an acrylic yarn))
2. superwash (so I know she can wash it and not have it shrink or felt)
3. most importanly, have an interesting variation of color on the yarn (so that she would like it more and to keep her interested in her scarf longer - yes, not only is she a 3 year old but also a little birdie that's easily distracted! ;P)

After a few hours (yes, I said a few hours), trolling through Ravlery & Instagram, driving P (the owner of my fav yarn store) a bit batty, and after a series of texts with Hubby and my other friends, B & W (they were all together), we finally decided on this yarn:

She waffled on this color and another more colorful one but ended picking her favorite (boring) color.  (Actually, the color is amazing ... I'm almost tempted to pick up a few more skeins to make myself a sweater with this color! :P)

Now, I'm sure you must be wondering at this point: Wow!  Are you going to teach D how to knit?  And the answer is: No way!  It'd be faster for me just to knit it than to teach her!  (OMG, I just turned into my grandma! :P lol)  She might not even complete the project if I left her to her own devices!  So, you must be wondering then:  So, what's with all of this rigmarole;  why such the big deal on the pattern and yarn?  Well, like I said earlier, my D is the pickiest creature on Earth.  If she didn't like/love the pattern AND the yarn, my knitting efforts would be in vain.  I know, I know ... there are many schools of thought out there about this:

• If you knit something for someone, just knit what you want and it's up to them to love it (or not)
• What you knit for someone is what you wanna knit; if that person doesn't love it then that's on them, not you
• Knitting a requested gift might make your knitting more of a chore than the actual enjoyment of knitting
• blah, blah, blah

In the end, D's my best friend and I know how she operates.  I knew that if I were to make something for her, she had to love it first before I even began.  And, she had to go through "the process" to understand what she was getting and if she'd even wanted the end product.  While it might sound crazy to most people, this was worth it to me.  I don't often make gifts for others (although I know it hasn't seem like it) so, I would rather that they find something they like (and that I can accomplish as I often do have a say and generally "guide" the recipient along the project) rather than making something I like and they hate.  After all, what is the point of making/giving a gift to someone if it's really for you??  Isn't the gift about them?

So ... in the end, I ended up special ordering the yarn (there was only 3 skeins and I needed 4).  It finally came in and using my Denise US7 needles and a 40" cable (I eventually switched to a 24" cable), I proceeded to follow the pattern.  Here's how it went:
After reading over the pattern and giving the first segment a go, it was a relatively quick knit (although I must admit, I didn't read it as thoroughly as I should have since I think I missed a few repeats the first time around; but, I did (eventually) get the hang of it! :P) :)  It took me just a bit over eight (8) weeks to finish it.  I hope she enjoys it! :)  Its a wrap!  

Boy - it was really long; I was worried I didn't have enough blocks!

(And, yes, she loves it - it's just the right length!❤️)