Wherein the knitter discovers a substitution for Noro Silk Garden

When there has been a long knitting hiatus, the best type of project to get back into the swing of things is something simple. A quick and satisfying project to 'prime the pump' as it were.

I know - a scarf.

I'd noticed the two stripe Noro scarf when Brooklyn Tweed showed off his magnificent one a couple of years ago (drooling as always over his fantastic photographic mojo). Then Yarn Harlot did one or a dozen last year as part of her annual Christmas knitting extravaganza. (It's all the way at the bottom of her post.)

I liked the look enough that I priced out the Noro Silk Garden that is the recommended yarn. OMG - $60 for a scarf? SO not in the budget - that's a sweater's worth of yarn! Then the other day, I was looking through the stash and found two skeins of Universal Yarn's "Classic Shades" that I'd picked up when I was in Jville last summer on my "tour of every yarn shop within driving distance of Camp Lejeune" road trip.

This yarn is a poly/wool blend; I'd used a similar blend for my Irish Hiking Scarf and Hat back in the day and liked it. This yarn is a singles and will probably pill, but that's what sweater shavers are for, right? My original skeins were color 702, which is a dark mixture of olive drabs, greenish grays, khakis, teals and tans with a subtle hint of orange here and there. Nice, but even if I started the skeins in different places, there was not enough contrast for the two stripe scarf.

So onto the 'net, where to my dismay, I discovered that this yarn has been discontinued!!! But there was a ebay seller who had a skein of color 706 for sale. This colorway is all burnt orange, rusts and burgundy shades.


I think this will work......