Noro Kochoran Neckwarming Scarf

Now that it's December, my mind is full of holiday knitting. My stash isn't too large - it fits in two huge plastic containers - but I've been focusing on knitting from the stash. So when I saw the pattern for the Cashmere Neckwarmer, I immediately thought, "The perfect way to use up my one skein of Noro Kochoran!"

To adjust for the thinner yarn, I cast on 17 stitches with US 10.5 size needles. I got really close to 4.5 inches wide, but there was so much yarn in my one skein that it ended up being 69 inches long (instead of 25, as the pattern called for!). Which means I made a scarf, not a neckwarmer, and I didn't have to add a button.



I like the pattern a lot. It's super quick and easy and is great stash-busting. It was easy to knit Continental and went really fast. I cast on 12/4 and after a couple hours of knitting, had 15 inches done. A few more hours on 12/5 brought me to 28 inches. I powered on through until the wee hours of 12/6-7 to finish with 69 inches total.

The pattern is mostly stockinette, so the finished scarf has a curl to it. Hopefully it will flatten out with blocking. I have resolved, however, to only do scarves with ribbing or garter in the future to avoid the curling. (The curl of the Chevron Scarf also bugged me.) And speaking of the Chevron? After knitting a 69 inch scarf in just over three days, I will never knit a scarf with fingering weight yarn again. That's three months of my knitting life I'll never have back.



As for the Noro Kochoran - it's soft yarn but the 30% angora sheds quite a bit and when I wore it around the neck, it was a bit scratchy. I liked the color transitions as I knit, but overall found the colorway I picked a bit on the dull side - for Noro, anyway. I doubt I'd use this yarn again.



At least it made nice photos.