A garter-stitch scarf (where you knit every stitch, on every row) is like vanilla ice-cream: the ingredients must be sublime for the product to shine.

For my trip to New York City to meet the media, I had a challenge – I really wanted to turn heads, but it had to be with just a plain ol’ garter-stitch scarf.

I chose a bulky-weight, 100% alpaca handpainted yarn from MistiAlpaca called Hand Paint Chunky.

Normally I don’t prefer to knit with 100% alpaca – it is almost too warm, a little fuzzy, and doesn’t hold its shape as well as wool.

But for a garter-stitch scarf, the handpainted colors really shone, and the stitch pattern had plenty of structure on its own.