Handspun Scarf - like a full moon on snow

One of the things about living in the country is that we really notice the moon.  On a full moon night, it's so bright, you can see everything as if there was a second, colourless sun in the sky.  There really is that much light, enough to read by, or work.  You just don't get the same effect in the city.

This scarf reminds me of the play of shadow and light when the moon is full and there is a light dusting of snow on the ground.  Snow is the reason why I knit this scarf.

The weather forecast told us snow was coming later in the week and I realized that my scarves were either too thin or too nice to wear around the farm.  I also wanted to see if I could train my hands to knit without using the arthritic joints (did it, with mixed success).

I gathered a pile of handspun yarn, in colours that matched my mood, dug out the largest circular needles I could find (36" long, 6mm) and cast on way more stitches than the needles could reasonably fit (roughly 600 but I didn't count so it may have been more).  The scarf is knit in gtst, as you can see, the rows go lengthwise instead of the usual widthwise.  The yarns were either ends of old projects, samples I knit, and starter yarns.  Just odds and ends, but all handspun by me.  Some only a few inches long, some several yards.

The scarf was knit almost SAORI style, which is basically free-form knitting.  I choose one yarn, knit until it was done, then choose the next depending on what I was feeling at that moment.

This orange thread is my favorite yarn I ever spun
Spun with combed cotswold locks,
and dyed with madder.
This is the last little scrap of this yarn in my stash

Here we have the oldest and youngest yarns.

The silver awl is pointing to one of my first ever yarns.  It's spun on a drop spindle, over spun, has a marvelous texture and was created during my first week of spinning.  The gold awl points to a sample of icelandic wool (from no-horn-blakish-greyish sheep...yes, that's her current name), I spun minutes before knitting it into the scarf.  Both spun on the same drop spindle.


The scarf is extremely warm!  I love it.  When I cast on, I had no idea how long the scarf would turn out.  I was expecting it to be at least 3 feet long, maybe even three and a half... but when I cast off, I was pleasantly surprised.  It's a little over 9 feet long.  Perfect!

gooseprints in the snow