Beer Thirty

I was sitting on my chaise on Saturday morning, and thought you might appreciate the view:

This is me, under a red blanket (fleece; very nice), with a river of lovely yarn. I was toasty-oasty warm, since if you look carefully at the photo, you can see the heater glowing cheerfully in the top center of the picture. As the sun came up, I got a bit too toasty-oasty, and had to turn the heater off, but I soldiered on. I was a total trouper (yes, trouper--it's from the concept of the acting troupe, not a military trooper) and kept going all day long until suddenly:

My needle came free!

Can it be? Is it possible? Has my Clover Bamboo size 5, 24" circular come free for the first time in six months!?!?!?

Indeed it has. I've completed the heavy knitting on the Doctor Who scarf, and all I have left is the tassles (which I've started. I need a smaller barrel crochet hook to finish-you can't get a size 10 crochet hook through the bottom loops of a fingering weight on size 5 knitting needles scarf easily, as I've discovered.) I felt such a sense of palpable relief, I almost passed out. Of course, the fact that it was 11:30 at night probably contributed (although, mark one off on my list of goals. I did, in fact, complete the main knitting on the Who scarf on November 1. Barely, but there it is. Huzzah for me!)

I was curious, though. Is it as long as advertised in the pattern?

I had to fold it into quarters to get the measurement. 26" times 4=104", or 8' 8". 5" of fringe on both ends adds a further 10 inches, making the final scarf 9' 6". If I managed to cut the fringes so that 5" will hang off. I believe I did. The test fringes (I've only tied on 4 tassles) are coming in between 5-6", and I'll trim it even.

I'm just so vastly relieved to have that bad boy off the needles. Good gravy. When I do my version of this scarf, I'm only casting on half as many stitches as this one--I don't like really wide scarves (I don't like them bunching up at the back of my neck), and this sucker is wide, like the Mississippi Delta. Because the yarn is so thin, though, it's not too onerous. I'm glad I'm not going to have to carry this sucker, though. It's not a light weight item!

I'm getting ready to start a new scarf, Rivolo from Knit Spot, which has the redeeming feature of not being anything at all like garter stitch, nor 9' long and 10" wide. It should be way easier on the hands, elbows and rib cage. I may even take this project on with straight needles. Maybe. Who knows?