Before I head into the second part of this (in which I reveal "my" scarf, though I don't feel I can call it that, I think if it much more as Jason's scarf, more on which in a moment), I want to thank everyone for the nice comments about the job I did.
And I'd especially like to thank Carol for the great blog post and the fine photographs of her scarf -- I can't take pictures to save my life, and she's managed to show the scarf off to advantage.
Just after I'd posted Carol's scarf to her, I had an email from Ted, introducing me to Jason. Now, this is where I confess that I used to read Jason's blog, but when we moved back to Canada and I ended up on dial-up, I removed almost everyone from my list with a picture-heavy blog, and that included Jason. But now I'm no longer on dial-up, so I was really glad to have the re-introduction to his blog, and I've added him back into my reading list.
Jason asked for my address, I provided it, and then, maybe a week or so later, a package arrived at my door. I opened it, and I was utterly gobsmacked. Jason had done a beautiful job with the fibre I'd sent (some Poleworth from Rovings in Manitoba, in a colour that doesn't seem to actually be on their website).
Now, I'd sent the fibre for one highly selfish reason: mainly, it was something I'd been eyeing in the shop and really wanted to spin, but couldn't justify with the stash I already had. But I adored the colours, and I really wanted to see how they'd spin up. Ted's fibre to scarf exchange gave me the excuse to get the fibre and send it off, with the added advantage that I would get a scarf without actually having to do the work.
(Let's leave aside the fact that I would be working on the scarf for Carol anyway, okay? It's not work when you're making it for someone else. It is work when it's for you.)
And to be honest, I was pretty much prepared for anything to come back. Oh, almost anything. I honestly wasn't prepared to open the box and find this:
I know, a trademark lousy picture. But even at that, you can still see how pretty it is. Here's a bit of a close-up (but the colours aren't quite right):
And one more:
(Note to Jason: I know you asked for copies of any photos I took, but honestly these really aren't great. But if you want them, you can swipe them from here, or email me and I'll try sending copies of the originals.)
Jason has done a great job of describing how he approached this, and has some very fine photos on his blog. You'll really want to go read/see. Really. Go now. I don't mind.
What almost tickles me most is the fact that, as Jason described in the note he included with my scarf, the scarf is "88 or 89 inches -- Lucky numbers in Chinese!"
Which is when I told him about the licence plate on my car. As many 8s as they would give me, specifically requested, for the luck thing.
Jason also sent along a small ball of the yarn that didn't get knitted up -- around 45 grammes or so. I'm hoping there'll be enough to do a couple of wrist warmers to match the scarf -- or that there will be if I mix in a little of another co-ordinating yarn.
But thank you to Jason, for creating something so perfectly *me*, and thank you to Ted for organizing this.