I was seriously bored and flicking through some knitting books looking for inspiration. The problem was that it was January in Sydney and we were having a heat wave, so the idea of playing with wool wasn’t really terribly thrilling.

I decided it might be the time to see what it was like to knit with cotton, so the thought of a cotton scarf started to form. About the same time I found the Mason Dixon book and liked their scribble lace scarves, which made me think that knitting with a thick and a thin yarn held together might give me an interesting fabric. I also liked the idea of having some colour variations that I could manage - I do love the multicoloured yarns but sometimes they can overwhelm a pattern or a stitch. Using two plain coloured yarns meant that I could choose the exact shades I wanted … what do you mean, “control freak”?!

Some quality playing on Ravelry’s pattern search page led me to the Versa pattern, which appealed because it was quite airy and unstructured without looking too sloppy. After a bit of swatching I decided on the combination of one 8mm and one 7mm needle, cast on 36 stitches with both yarns together and settled down in front of the fan with a cold drink to knit my way through the summer humidity.

This was a great pattern for sitting around and trying not to move too much in 42-degree heat. The two yarns twisted around each other in unpredictable ways and I love the effect it gave. I knitted till I ran out of the navy - well, to be truthful, till about 8 stitches past the end of the navy. It ran out while I was casting off, so I just finished the cast-off with the light blue. Don’t you love knitting stuff for yourself? There is no pressure to be perfect!

It didn’t grow much after blocking, which surprised me, so it’s about 205cm long. I’ve told people that this will be a good “between seasons” scarf, but actually I’m thinking it will be a great “trying to look like I put more effort into my weekend outfit than I really did” scarf.