Perfectionist

This is what's been staring at me for the past few days:

At first it was patient... sure that eventually I would decide on a pattern and start knitting it up into the vibrant rainbowed scarfalicious glory that it's destined to be. It's one of a pair of matching-but-not-matching scarves I decided to make my sister and her girlfriend for Christmas. I'm no super-knitter but I figured whipping up some scarves would be a piece of cake. Especially since I started in August and the first one was simple garter stitch. Now it's the beginning of November and I still don't have a second scarf even started. I think the yarn is starting to get grumpy.

What's my problem you ask? I'm indecisive and a bit of a perfectionist. Not a good combination. What this means is that I've done about 15 different test swatches to try out simple stitch patterns from both the Harmony Guide and the Vogue Knitting I checked out from the library. Not to mention the handful I found online. I just can't find anything I like!!! This yarn is dk weight acrylic... these are more autumny scarves than mid-winter apparel. But I'm trying to avoid lace/hole-filled patterns that will make them even less warm. I want to keep the second one simple to balance with the garter stitch in the first one. But so far I just can't settle. I don't like the way this stuff knits up in moss stitch and for some reason ribbing comes out wonky. Chevrons aren't quite right.. I don't want to do cables... lattice stitch is all wrong...

So far the only thing I'm half okay with is diagonal garter stitch ribbing. Fits well with the other one... but the ribbing doesn't show well with all the color changes! Grrrr...

What do you think? Should I go ahead and knit it up? Or keep questing for the perfect pattern?

To make things worse, two sweaters I picked up last weekend at the thrift shop are sitting there begging me to recycle them. Neither had tags so I'm not sure on the fiber content. As far as my inexperienced fiber-sense can tell, one is a cream acrylic or cotton worsted and the other is some kind of soft fuzzy mohair/angora/blend-something or other. Once I start frogging them I plan on doing a burn test to see if I can get a better idea.

I'm thinking of using the cream yarn to make myself an Irish Hiking Scarf. Now that I know I can kick cable butt I'm excited to jump on the IHS bandwagon. Who knows what will become of the other one. I just like watching my stash grow :)