a post in which robin is the star

the squirrel on wheels turned out even better than i was hoping for! not only is he a zippy little critter himself, but a pretty fast knit as well - the whole things was finished in three days.

yarn:
[MC] 1 skein knit picks city tweed heavy worsted in tahitian pearl
[CC] small amount of lorna's laces shepherd worsted in 24ns navy

my other big news is that last week i finally finished my peak's island hood - it took me almost two months to knit! a lot of that time was spent ignoring the project entirely, and it probably still wouldn't be done if i hadn't had help with the miles and miles of moss stitch.

though i love the pattern and colors i chose to make it in, i think i ultimately wasn't excited about it because the yarn felt scratchy and a little gross, and i just couldn't imagine wrapping it around my head. in the back of my mind, i suspected that this yarn would never have the softness and drape of the yarn actually called for in the pattern - it's just too rustic.

then, when i went to block it in my bathtub, i had an idea. why couldn't the same conditioner that makes my hair super-soft also have the same effect on this scarf? even if it makes it one-quarter softer than it originally was, i would consider the experiment a success.

so i squeezed a good dallop of aveda's dry remedy conditioner* into my soaking water and tossed in my scarf. a few hours later, i rinsed it out and laid it flat to dry on the only thing long enough to block a scarf on - my massage table! unfortunately for me, robin thinks the massage table belongs to him, and i had to shoo him off, more or less, every ten minutes. finally i gave up, and he got comfortable - and as soon as the rest of the scarf was dry, i could hang it up on the shower rod in order to allow the cat-sized damp spot to finish drying.

i'm happy to report that my scarf feels amazing now - my most modest expectations were surpassed several times over. later today i need to find the perfect buttons and get some nice FO photos to post here!

*full disclosure: i work for an aveda spa, so i get a discount!

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