Charm scarflet, finished

This evening I curled up in my chair, feet up on my fuzzy purple ottoman, and finished this keyhole scarf. It's headed to Tara, and judging by her response to my texted picture, she likes it already. I think it suits her quirky sense of style (a gal after my own heart, indeed).

I decided not to block it at all. Reviews of the pattern I read were mixed with some folks saying it looked a lot better after blocking and some saying the curling of the neck section made it nicer to wear. I settled for a compromise and hand-stretched the piece. It's sitting folded up on my ironing board right now and it's staying flat just fine. When I tried it on, I liked that the leaves puckered a little bit. It will look really nice peeking out of a wool coat or a trench rain coat -- something we are finally using up here in Sacramento. 

The pattern, Anthro-inspired Scarflet, called for aran weight yarn but I wanted to use this teal/blue that was DK so I just held two strands together throughout and it worked out just fine. A lighter weight yarn likely wouldn't hold the structure this requires with just a single strand. The 'ribbing' is less pronounced than I was expecting, in that the fabric is quite flat instead of heavily ridged. In the end I think that's ok because I'm not sure I'd want a big fluffy leaf sticking off my neck anyway. 

Happy to have had this project turn into a stash buster. I just about used up this yarn I bought in Delft -- a little left over for some fun scrappy project in the future. I remember originally wanting to make this yarn into panels for a purse that mimicked the Delftware motifs we saw all over the Netherlands. Alas, it never came to be, but I think this yarn is much more at home as a scarf and it's going to a good home.