Scarf with Boucle...for my sins...

My dear friend, who was so kind last year as to give me a stitch pattern book I didn't have, met me for dinner the other night.  After a spirited discussion over whether or not her sandwich was really supposed to taste vinegary, she pulled out a bag and dumped it on the table.

"My mother wants you to knit her a scarf. She's willing to pay."

Knitting...scarf...money...needless to say, I was interested. I opened the bag to find boucle yarn. May we pause here to say that of all the yarns I've worked with, boucle has to be the ABSOLUTE WORST. It's one of those yarns I vowed NEVER TO USE AGAIN. It's a nightmare to crochet with, as you can't see the stitches. One of these days, I'll devote an entire blog post to my adventures crocheting the Bernat Easy Pullover (easy, my a**). There was a note from her mother in with the yarn, explaining that she wanted me to also use Caron Simply Soft in a "beige" or "camel," and just "mix" the colors.

Figuring that perhaps the boucle might be easier to knit than crochet, I agreed. Not that I was planning to say no to my dear friend...

Well, as I quickly discovered when I did the gauge swatch, knitting with boucle isn't much better than crocheting with it, as the yarn sort of sticks to itself and the needles - and FORGET about frogging if you screw up. I know you're not supposed to, but I usually pull out the gauge swatch and use the yarn for the project.

Yeah...that wasn't happening here.

I was left with two pathetic little squares. The stockinette square was sort of mangy-looking on one side, and the other side looked like a fuzzy teddy bear someone had put through the washing machine entirely too many times. The garter square didn't look much better.

I frantically called my friend, asking if perhaps her mother might not notice if I just bought the "camel" or "beige" Caron and then another skein of Caron in the same color as the knotted mess from hell in my lap masquerading as workable yarn. I even offered to swallow the cost. "Oh, no!" She exclaimed. "My mother SPECIFICALLY picked out that yarn because she just LOVED it!"

So, this is my current predicament. I'm thinking maybe of either knitting two strands together of each type of yarn in garter stitch, which might be easier; or I might alternate the two yarns by row.

Either way, it isn't going to be pretty...the things I do for my friends...