The Magic of Blocking

Since it's been ages since I last completed a knitting project, I decided it was about time to pick up the old knitting needles. I have been wanting to try this column of leaves scarf pattern for awhile now. It was an exceptionally slow pattern for the first several "leaves" due to the fact that every single row in the pattern is a slightly different mixture of knit, purl, and other more complex stitches; however, once the pattern is finally memorized, it certainly speeds up!

To knit this scarf, I used worsted-weight wool yarn on size-6 needles. I was pleasantly surprised at the ease of knitting with wool - I only tried acrylic and cotton in the past. This was also the first time I've ever actually blocked a finished project. I was amazed at how much nicer my pattern looked once I was finished. Any pattern that has lace aspects to it definitely needs the blocking to help stretch it out (though blocking did add a couple feet to my finished project!)