O Henry, My Henry

I've finished an epic scarf.  It has 452 stitches in a row (it's knit lengthwise), and it takes between 15 and 20 minutes to complete one row.

It's made of gorgeous ivory laceweight cashmere that I bought at a LYS in Louisville that was going out of business.  The recipient picked out the yarn and the pattern.  The pattern itself uses slipped stitches to make a beautiful herringbone.  The scarf is stunning and soft as, well, cashmere.

Henry knit in Jade Sapphire Mongolian Cashmere 2-ply in Ivory

Typically, I try very hard not to pay attention to how long projects take to knit.  Knitting is slow.  If I wanted fast, I'd do something else.  This time, though, I made the mistake of noting how long it took to knit a row when I realized I was only getting two rows completed at lunch.  I should have stopped right there, but I didn't.

I did the math.


174 rows total

15-20 minutes/row
2 hours plus some Internet searches for incredibly fiddly tubular bind off

3165 minutes

That, ladies and gentlemen, is 52.75 hours.  In reality, it probably took more because I had several rows in which my brain stopped working and I then had to carefully unknit one stitch at a time until I found the error.  This happened more often than I'm willing to admit, even though the pattern specifically warns the knitter to check regularly to make sure the herringbone was lining up properly.

It was worth the time. It's a beautiful pattern knit in beautiful yarn, and it's a gift that celebrates my oldest friendship. Hooray for old friends, knitty.com, and goats!