Christmas Spectra

Still working on catching up with documentation of the Christmas knitting. The major knitted present this year was a scarf for my step-mom (completed on time and everything!).

The pattern was Stephen West's Spectra (ravelry link). I believe my only two pattern modifications were to slip the last two stitches at each edge instead of only one, and to twist the yarns to trap the contrast color between the wedges. Both of these mods were recommended at my LYS. I used a brown Malabrigo sock for the main (border) color and Kauni for the contrast (wedges) color. I used the Malabrigo until it was almost all gone, and I used only about a third of the Kauni. The color was "EG," their rainbow colorway. I absolutely love this yarn. It's considerably rougher than the butter-soft Malabrigo, and in this scarf I think that provides a great texture contrast. I might not use the Kauni alone for a next-to-skin item, but I still love it.
This shot gives an idea of how very slowly the colors change. I started at the blue edge of purple, knit through red, orange, yellow, and 87 color wedges later I was just getting into the green. I think this is the right part of the spectrum for my step-mom's coloring, though I am not known for my ability to judge such things. It seems right, though.

The short row wedges make a great spiral shape, which turned out to be a little bit of a challenge to block on a flat surface. When my husband came home and saw this pinned out on our sunroom floor, for a minute he thought I had knitted a rug.

This pattern with this yarn was so much fun that I may have to turn the rest of my Kauni skein into two more spectra scarves. Giving me the wonderful dilemma of choosing two more yarns to be the edges!