Entrelac Scarf

I’ve been trying to work through my yarn stash. One yarn in particular caught my eye recently: Plymouth Yarn Zino in colorway 1 Blue Pink Orange Green.

Back in 2010, I picked up one skein of Zino at my local yarn shop. Shortly after that, the yarn shop had a going-out-of-business sale and I couldn’t resist picking up two more skeins at 75% off. It is a soft fingering weight yarn of 75% wool/25% nylon with long color repeats. With the Zino and some Heart and Sole with Aloe from Red Heart in E745 Ivory, I finished a gorgeous pair of socks as a gift in 2011.

This summer, I blogged about using the same yarn combination to knit a pair of mittens. Once again, I think the result is gorgeous — but I still have just over two skeins of Zino in my stash. I’ve come to the conclusion that there are only so many items that need to be made in the exact same colorway.

In 2014, I tried entrelac for the first time by knitting a scarf with the free pattern Entrelac Scarf by Allison LoCicero. I had always been a little intimidated to try entrelac, but I found the pattern to be simple and fun. An entrelac scarf in Zino would serve the dual purpose of being a beautiful wearable item that would coordinate with the mittens I already made while using up the remainder of the yarn.

Zino is much finer than the aran weight yarn that is called for in the pattern. Instead of knitting three base triangles on US-8 (5.0 mm) needles at the beginning of the scarf, I knit seven base triangles on US-2 (2.75 mm) needles. Before blocking, the scarf is about ten inches wide; I wanted a wide scarf, but I may have gotten carried away. The yarn has too much halo to easily frog the scarf and start over, so I am carrying on and trusting the process.

I am almost to the end of the first skein. Next I will use up the partial skein, which is from a different dye lot, before moving onto the last full skein. The scarf is about 20 inches long at this point and I’m estimating that it will be about 50 inches long by the end, before blocking. The length will increase somewhat after blocking, but the scarf may not be long enough for a nice drape after wrapping it around my neck. I’m already considering connecting the ends to turn it into a cowl

Do you change your plans while a project is in progress?