Gearing up for Christmas
I’ve decided to take the plunge this year and make hand-crafted gifts for family and friends. It seems like the past few years, my husband and I have slipped into the rut of giving mostly gift cards. It would be nice to mix things up and give something a little more meaningful and special than a little plastic card.
At first, I was only going to make a Clapotis for my MIL, but I now have plans for several other family members; a scarf for my FIL, a scarf for one cousin, a hat for another cousin, fingerless gloves for my mother, and something special for the husband himself. Obviously, all of this is going to take quite a while to complete. I don’t want to get stuck doing last minute knitting, so I’ve decided to get a head start and get going on things now.
Currently, I have a Noro Striped Scarf on the needle for my husband’s cousin. I really like the way the scarf looks with Noro, but I dislike the yarn intensely. 
A while ago I chanced upon some Wisdom Yarns Poems and, noticing the similarity to the stunning colors in Noro, grabbed a few balls with the intention of using it as a substitute.
The Poems yarn is a decent alternative to the Noro. It is not as slubby and I haven’t had any issues with it breaking on me like the Silk Garden does. In my four balls of Poems, I found only one knot. I usually end up with two or three knots per ball of Noro, regardless of what weight or fiber blend it is. Not having to pick unidentifiable bits of yuck out of the yarn is also another plus. I am not pleased, however, with how much the colors are bleeding onto my fingers and the needles. I cast on while at the World Wide Knit in Public Day events at my LYS and was quite pleased with how the colors were striping. I am hoping that I will be able to get the color set on the first or second washing.
I cannot possibly express how much a project of this magnitude is making me loathe 1×1 ribbing. I’m now more than half way through and my wrist is beginning to hate me. Fortunately the other projects I have in mind do not contain any ribbing at all.
Haha, I know how you feel about getting sick of ribbing after a scarf which uses it in the pattern. The last two scarves I made were 2×2 rib all the way through, but unfortunately almost every project I like enough to do involves ribbing of some sort, so I just tough it out.