Scarf in use

I had to share this photo of my handsome nephew on his way to a big game, wearing the scarf I lovingly knitted for him. It's always gratifying to see one's FO being used and enjoyed. Go, Demon Deacons!

FO: Alma Mater Scarf

I did it! I finally finished something! Of course, my nephew's birthday is September 10th and the scarf is for him so I really had no choice.

This is an adaptation of a pattern from Scarfstyle which switches right sides every four inches or so, has stripes, and some interesting ribbed texture. It's very manly somehow. Can you tell my nephew goes to Wake Forest (Go, Demon Deacons)? He requested that I include his initials, hence the LCN on the other end of the scarf.

Many, many thanks to all of you Yarnies for your suggestions on hiding the back of the intarsia. Taking your advice, I ended up knitting two plain back panels the size of the section with the letters and sewing them onto the back. (I wanted to do double-knitting but found it too complicated with the intarsia pattern; my brain is very feeble.) I left one end open to create a pocket for holding ticket stubs, cash, Kleenex, or whatever. I got that idea from a NJ Devils scarf my husband gave me which has a zippered pocket built in.

(I know this just looks like black but it is the knitted back panel/pocket, and looks much neater than the reverse side of the intarsia.)

Woo hoo! Of course, I still have to complete the white lace scarf which will probably never be done because I'm convinced Barbara's Sugar Maple magic has bewitched the ball of yarn so it never, EVER ends. And I'm working on a beautiful soft blue throw blanket which I'm trying to finish before Christmas as a gift. It takes me forever to do one row because it's so darn BIG. But the yarn is so gorgeous that I love having it draped over my lap. And my (different, older) nephew and his wife are expecting a baby so I have to knit a bib for that. And I''ve found a pattern for a sweater I want to knit for myself. And...yes, I've still got the knitting disease.

The dark side of intarsia

Never, ever tell someone you're knitting something for them. Why? Because they'll make requests.

I told my nephew who's a freshman at Wake Forest that I was going to knit a scarf in his college colors for him. He was thrilled. Then he said, "Can you put a 'WF' on the scarf?"

Being a good aunt, I said, "Sure!" Then he said, "Cool. Can you put my initials on the scarf?"

What was I supposed to say?

So now I'm stuck with intarsia, those annoying color changes mid-row that require lots of dangling little knots of yarn and lots of weaving in of ends. I have to say that I really enjoy working out the pattern on graph paper; it's one of those processes that appeals to the engineer's side of my brain (which I inherited from my father).

And I have to say it looks pretty snazzy on the front:

However, here's the Dark Side of intarsia:

It's enough to give you nightmares, isn't it? The worst part is that with a scarf it will show as the ends get flipped around. So I'm going to have to really make it look neat and tidy when I tuck all the ends in. Ugh!

Here's what I've knitted so far. It's a modification of a pattern in ScarfStyle (my Bible of scarves).

I like it because the stockinette stitch and ribbing switches back and forth between sides, making the "flipping" issue moot (except for the #$%#@#&@* intarsia!).

Any helpful hints about keeping one's sanity while knitting intarsia would be most welcome! Anyone? Anyone?