A Non-Scratchy Scarf for Steve

I hope everyone had a fun and festive Thanksgiving celebration. Steve and I had a wonderful time visiting his family in Napa Valley (California Wine Country). Whilst there, I took the opportunity of snapping a few pictures of Steve in his new scarf. I think it passed muster.



Which is a relief because he's a fussy one. Nothing "scratchy" or "fancy" for him. He's actually not much one for wearing a scarf, period. But as I observed to a good friend who remarked on having never seen Steve wear scarf, "he's going to wear this one," spoken with more confidence than I felt. But now having seen him wearing it I'm pretty sure he does like the scarf.



Particulars: Basic Scarf pattern, Ann Budd's The Knitters Handy Book of Patterns (and handy it is); 5 skeins Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Cashmere; US 10 needles. This is a simple "mistake rib" scarf where I cast on 27 stitches and knit until I ran out of yarn. I like a mistake rib scarf because it gives a nice drape to the fabric and in a solid color creates a nice no-frills manly scarf. If you are interested in mistake rib, this link will take you to a website that explains the simple stitch pattern.



As I mentioned, we spent Thanksgiving with Steve's family and this year we had time to pop in and visit his cousin Gerry at her pottery shop, P& G Art Studio, in Sebastopol, California.

Steve comes from a very artistic family and his mother and aunt are wonderful painters and his cousin Gerry is wonderfully creative too, as you will see. Actually, Steve's not too shabby an artist himself having studied at the Art Institute of Chicago while in medical school and he takes most of the pictures that you see here on the blog.

His cousin's shop is mainly pottery although she also sells a few fabric items such as scarfs, hats and pillows. As of yet they haven't got a shop on-line so you will just have to visit the shop the next time you are in the Napa area.



I love pottery hanging from a wall. It gives a California mission feel to architecture. Growing up I was fortunate to live near the beautiful Santa Barbara Mission which is situated next to a stunning rose garden. I have pleasant memories of sitting by it's fountain and wandering through its cool dark hallways feeling an eerie connection to the past.

Gerry whimsically describes her wall pieces as follows:

Vignettes: It is their pleasure to delight, beautify, adorn, furbish, decorate, and garnish as well as smarten, spruce up, embellish, and detail, festoon, or amuse.


As I've previously mentioned, growing flowers is not a talent of mine. It's ideal when a couple compliment each other's weaknesses and it would have been nice if Steve had a passion for gardening. But I had a sinking feeling that was not to be when I had to tactfully point out early in our relationship that he was smelling and admiring flowers that were plastic, and not real. Sigh.

Do you think I could fool people into thinking I have a green thumb if I scattered some of Gerry's flowers about in my pots? Maybe from a distance?

Have a great week everyone ~ and make time to put your feet up and enjoy a cup of tea while flipping through your favorite knitting magazine!