Bless your heart!

Holy crap I laughed out loud when I read this (this only adds to the list of things I do that make my coworkers convinced that I am quite nutty)! So good to know Saddle Tan is your new favorite color!

Oh how I hated that color, and I just kept wishing there were more purple, or green, anything to stay away from the tan, brown, and yellow, I didn't even mind the red so much. It won't belong I finished mine in about 3 and half weeks, and you knit way faster.

BUT - if we were to play Pollyanna, there are only 18 more ridges of saddle tan after you finish the current block. My problem is the 13" width of the scarf. That seems awkward and stiff. But your knitting is beautiful, YH - so crisp. You set a high standard even for garter stitch! :-)

How about opening a beer every time the Saddle Tan comes around?

Just a thought

Are you planning on blocking this scarf??

I'm with Uny. I beer for each time Saddle Tan has to come around might be a nice reward and a fervent reminder that there can be pleasentness mixed with umpleasantness. As a reward that is...

I totally understand this pain. But, it will be ok, and once you finish it your rewards is all sorts of other color.

Besides, you need the neutral to make all the others colors be as pretty as they are.

You can do eeeet!

If the knitting community were like the rest of the internet world you would be bombarded with packages of Saddle Tan yarn. Hooray for knitters not being jerks!

Go to the movies. Knit the saddle tan in the dark.

You have just managed to express what I have felt for year...but about the colour pink. Thank you for that.

You have put words to a feeling I have been struggling to describe for 11 months. I feel you have described my suffering perfectly. EVERY ROOM IN MY ENTIRE HOUSE IS PAINTED SADDLE TAN.

We moved in a year ago and I'm slowly picking colours and repainting over the soul-sucking beige of doom. Fortunately for me the painting-over process is a joyful banishing of the miserable shade. There's no way I could face knitting with the same colour until every square cm of my house is painted over.

That is the exact color of every single wall in the first condo I owned. My MIL loved it because her favorite color is - get this - beige. That's barely even a color, how can it be someone's favorite?

And now I know what to dread when I decide that my boyfriend's Christmas present next year is this scarf (which I've almost decided on, but am waiting to start until I get over the paranoia of boyfriend scarf knitting)

We call it transfer tan - every empty home we looked at when we were relocating was painted that color.

I am ashamed to admit that we have lived in our house for a year and the walls are still "transfer tan"

Look on the bright side - at least there's only three more sections of Saddle Tan left and they're all fairly short!

What I have to keep telling myself during all the crazy-boring parts of projects is that it will all be worth it in the end. Or, as Dory says, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..."

sometimes it's the other colors that make the one horrible color all the more horrible and dreary.

Reminds me of "China White" (something like that). The rental apartment go-to wall color. Yep, had walls that color myself.

Oh, get a grip on yourself. It's the color of cumin. Plan dinner while you're knitting.

It reminds me of the old Crayola color "skin tone". Yuck If my skin is ever that color, please take me out and kill me with knitting needles!!

Not only is it an awful color - but I have NEVER seen a saddle in "saddle tan". Vegetable-tanned plain leather, yes, but never a saddle! No self-respecting horse would wear that color!

Judging from that last photo, the boring tan actually plays very well with the other colors! Cheer up, Stephanie, 'twill soon be done.

I like Uny's suggestion at 11:56. Be one with the Saddle Tan - beer helps.

I'm good with saddle tan, it's bland and boring as can be all by itself, but looks good with a nice dark rust. The not-color I absolutely cannot stand is Lion Brand's horrible "Mushroom - soft taupe brushed with grey" Bleaaahhhh. It's a grey icky mushroom gone bad.

I admit it, I laughed. At the same time, I feel your pain. I really do. Those long slogs through boring knitting are brutal.

You can do it!

Reminds me of the color of about 80% of the cars on the road when we lived in Tucson, AZ a zillion years ago. I could never decide if it was traffic or a mirage, like in those old brown-tone movie flashbacks. Hang in there...you will prevail, I'm certain.

I feel the same way about … shudder…. anything of a peach color. Gaaahhhhh!

So I can imagine your pain.

Be strong.

I feel your pain. In contrast, anything I knit in any shade of red raises my spirits like none other! I guess that's my inner yarn harlot jumping for joy.

Rant now. Rave later.

I wonder what a cosmic latte tastes like, because I am really in the mood.

Toffee perhaps?

Keep goin' Steph! Soon the tan will meld into the other colors and the beauty of the Dr Who will shine forth in Whoville. You can do it! Rah Rah Rah! Gooooooooooooooo Stephanie!

Yes! My just-moved-into apartment's walls are that color. Sigh.
I think if I were knitting that scarf, the saddle tan would make me want to start knitting a tiny lion toy. Or cuddly teddy bear (with a BRIGHT RED cabled sweater on, of course). Tan is good for knitted animals! Not to distract from scarves, of course...

I never liked the look of the tans in the first scarf so I knit the second maroon one to keep my sanity. You will know your in real trouble when you start to dream about saddle tan.

"...makes me want to paint my body a bright turquoise and put yellow ochre gems in my hair..."
PLEASE TAKE PICTURES!
:-)

I am a horrible person that gets joy from others pain. You made me laugh. (Btw, I thought I hated the "tan" until I got to the multiple sections of "green". Your mileage may differ depending on the season you're knitting.)

It could be worse. You could be doing the Romana version of the scarf - just as long but solid cream.

The walls of my current apartment are this color, I am so happy to be moving this weekend.

Ah yes, the Dr Who scarf was my first-ever project when I started out knitting - got all excited about making something for my husband (who is mad keen on the good Doctor). I can easily recall how painful knitting all that garter stitch was. He still has it, and occasionally even WEARS it, so I must have done something right? But yes, that tan is a very blah colour.

I would wonder what you were going on about if it weren't for the scarf in "Harvest" - wonderful Lorna's Laces Shepherd Wool, terrific hand, great stitch definition, but OMG that AWFUL color! WHAT was I thinking?
I finished it because that's what I do but it was almost three years ago and it still makes me shudder.

You need to concentrate on how absolutely wonderful it is going to feel next December when you have that scarf neatly washed and blocked and wrapped and gift-ready, instead of looking at a package of Who yarn.

Why did you use it??????????

Do you always knit flat items, like scarves, with straight needles? If so, is there a reason? It looks like you are using the Cadillac signature needles.

Oh my gosh, that is the worst color EVER. EVER in the history of yarn. You're a stronger woman than I --I would SO be substituting some other color for that one. That color is the color of most of the (sorry) vomit my children have thrown up on me over the years.

I prefer darker colors for saddles, too...but at least you can think happy thoughts that go with saddles...horses, trail rides, barrel racing...

Our entire house was that color when we bought it many years ago. Walls, ceilings, carpeting, even the gorgeous woodwork that my husband lovingly stripped over the next two decades. That color defined the 1950s. 'Nuff said. Keep calm and knit.

Hilarious. I tell my kiddos that there are just some things that make me freak the frak out.

Everyone has a "saddle tan" in their life...it just might be a different color.

Treat yourself to something when you hit those ridges...a fresh cup of coffee, a cup of tea, a cookie, a beer (as has been previously mentioned).

Or just picture the family whose favorite color is beige...and let your imagination run with that!

And only 18% of the scarf is saddle tan!

Back in the days when Mr. X and I moved all over the country due to transfers with his company, the phrase among all of us tranferees was "Relocation Beige". The thrill when he finally got to corporate and we knew we would be in the same house long enough to actually use real paint colors!

Oh you make me laugh...and remember that my youngest son's favorite color is bright orange (carrot orange, NOT a more mature pumpkin orange) and that last year's sweater was mostly carrot orange, and this year's sweater yarn is also carrot orange. I haven't cast on yet and it's already January. I just can bear to see that color flowing through my fingers again. Instead, I have hidden the yarn in the back of the stash closet. I think I just admitted to myself that as much as I adore my son and his love of all things orange, I will never knit him that sweater.

Tell yourself that it is no longer to be known as Saddle Tan, but from here on out it shall be called CREAMY CARAMEL LIQUEUR. It sounds way more appealing that way. :-)

the length of the scarf is why I found a kids pattern online and made that version (at the time I started it I lived where I could never have worn a heavy scarf, or really most any scarf at all)

However...it STILL took FOREVER, and the tan was still EVIL!!!

The 'saddle tan' beige I know of is more dark and saturated. The one I'm using is more oatmeal than anything. Still, brings out the scarf nicely. :D

Simple solution: get someone who LIKES the colour to knit this part....😋

May I suggest a pale blue-gray instead? If you use the same value as the saddle tan, you'll still have a nice muted neutral to make your other colors pop.

Can't. Stop. Laughing! Goodness. I was knitting a hat for my big-sized husband's head in that color because it would look great with his fading used to be bright red hair, and the color... You totally nailed it. And so I ended the thing several inches early, where it's the right length for me but too wide around because it was started for Mr. XXXL hat size.

I'm cracking up.

Oh I feel your colour pain! Although saddle tan is not the colour that sets my teeth on edge, I have a similar visceral reaction to a certain shade of turquoise (à la melted Crayola in the back window of the family car on a hot summer's day) and a particular shade I think of as "United Church green" for its prevalence in every church kitchen I ever visited in childhood. Courage! This too shall pass. :)

Despite my love of Dr. Who, I have an on-going argument that the fourth doctor scarf shouldn't be and that life is too short to knit with ugly yarn. I still accept that it is the THING for the fourth Doctor, I just think I'd make my own "Doctor inspired" scarf in prettier colors.

Or an Amelia Pond scarf in red...because red is lovely.

While beer may help one endure the Saddle Tan, methinks a shot or six of Screech might make the journey even easier.

Eew.

Perhaps if you gave it another name in your mind, that might help? May I suggest: Caramel, Peter Rabbit, Palomino, Out of Africa, Light Chocolate, Puppies!

That was the color of the car my husband had when we first met! He referred to it as "the flesh-toned Escort held together with Grateful Dead stickers." That car has probably now rusted away in some junkyard in Philadelphia.

Katie at Jan 8: Personally, I wouldn't knit a Dr. Who scarf for any man until he were my husband. Do you really want him to break up with you AND have a scarf of this magnitude?

I'm not sure if you remember me, but I showed you the first thing I knit, a Doctor Who scarf, at the Toronto launch of your All Wound Up book. (Hi!)

I'm making another one now! This time, for me. Because I'm some kind of crazy person.

We started at the same time, I think, but you're ahead of me! I just finished the soul-sucking 54 rows of beige yesterday. When I finished it, I rewarded myself with some quick crocheted squares in a rainbow of bright colours. It felt really, really good. ^_^

My goal is 5% a day, so hopefully I'll be done on January 20th... so far, so good!

I can't wait to see yours finished!

Steady, girl! Saddle tan, Schmaddle tan.

I see a complicated lace something or other in your near future. Probably not Saddle Tan in color. :D I'm coming down off of a fair isle jaunt, so garter stitch looks very appealing. I started a top down in the round plain jane raglan instead, but, hey, I was looking at those log cabin blankets. They sure do take awhile..... ;)

I can't, for the life of me, figure out why anyone would want to wear a scarf that is 12 ft. long, let alone knit one. And that hideous color saddle tan is the way the color PURPLE affects me...I want to wretch, run screaming for the nearest exit. Pox on Purple. As fast as you knit, I expected this to be finished already. I guess you're a mortal instead of a myth.

Sounds like you are throwing a Saddle Tan trum!

I say EXTERMINATE! the Saddle Tan!

It's the same way I feel about spinning undyed, white fiber.

I feel your pain. It's no fun to knit with a color you hate, and I am no fan of that one either. My mom bought me a sweater that color once. Every time I wore it, people asked if I was ill. It eventually was donated.

Do you have some rose-colored sunglasses you could wear for the duration? :-)

Saddle tan makes all the other colors look more beautiful! I can't wait to see what it looks like when it is done!

My sympathies! My personal knitting hell is large swaths of tan,beige,ecru, etc.........especially in garter stitch. Your intended recipient must be very loved for you to endure this.

You can call it Saddle Tan, or Beach Sand, or Cafe au Lait, or Dark Canvas or Creme Brulee or Pantone 13-1006: it's all still beige, and we hates it.

Have you tried the zen approach? The garter stitch sections of Saddle Tan are really no different from the other sections of garter stitch? A quilting master from Korea once said in a class I took with her, "You never get tired of sewing straight lines. You do, however, get very tired of doing lots of fancy designs. But you never, ever get bored with straight lines." A straight line in Saddle Tan or in a beautiful red is still a straight line.

Good luck!

I am shuddering from Saddle Tan flashbacks now.

I know how you feel, I just started a ripple blanket with a brownish/beige yarn that I don't like working with, but it will look good when it is done. I picked it out so I have no one to blame but me.
Meredith

Try feeling sad for the Saddle Tan. It's like an orange that never got to be cozy OR fierce. Mostly just dirty. Plus, it could have been called "buff," which is an irritating name for a color that is both an adjective and a verb.

I wore out 2 pair of socks within a three day span and decided I needed to replace them ASAP. The first pair were plain vanilla in a rust and navy handpaint, and went about as quickly as I expected. The second pair is in Opal in a colorway called Papagei (parrot), and although the yarn appeared reasonable in the ball, knit up it is as garish as it sounds.

It is agony to continue to look at my sock while I knit, but I know these socks will fit well and wear well.

I feel your pain.

Yeah, I can see how that could cause a slight breakdown...

As the recipient of a Doctor Who scarf knit by my Mom, I can say with confidence that "The Scarf" is a treasure. Wrapping myself in that lovely swath of garter stitch is like having my Mom hug me again. (The look on my face when my husband announced that he had borrowed it to "keep his camera warm while doing a night time-lapse" was probably sheer horror! I'm pretty sure I developed a twitch... I have actually decided to knit his camera it's own darn scarf to keep my scarf safe!)

In the mean time, chocolate and a cup of tea may be necessary...

I rarely laugh out loud at anything on the internet besides this blog, and today I roared at the image of the bright turquoise body and gemstones in the hair because I too have a colour BANE and it is grey.

I knit a LOT of socks and mostly for men, and you'd think that they could manage to request the odd black, brown or navy pair, or socks with contrasting toes and heels, but no. It is charcoal grey for evermore and that is all they ever want; then along comes some dear sweet boy who really needs fingerless gloves for his job and WHAT colour does he request? Yup, you got it...charcoal freakin grey.

Sigh. The life of a Knitter is fraught with such challenges.

I don't think I could knit a 12 foot long scarf. What does one do with a 12 foot long scarf anyway? LOL

I suppose now would be a bad time to mention I am knitting a sock out of the most beautiful Misti Alpaca? It's the DCed Seattle colorway. Reds, greens, blues, oranges, yellows, in soft smooshy silky alpaca!

I have the opposite of Saddle Tan scarf. * maniacal laughter*

I just finished a Dr. Who scarf for my hubby in November. It seems so easy (and it is) but it is a challenge to your will to stay on task! Go! Go!

The walls in my living and dining room are painted the best color that I LOVE ... but my children persist in calling it Lion Puke (I think the real name is Lion Grass or some such). But Lion Puke has stuck, so to speak and now & forevermore, that will be the name of the color.

Why not treat it as a drinking game, anytime the beige comes up DRINK! Mimosas, zinfandel, ale, cider - whatevs! Drink drink drink....knit knit knit.

Ye gods! So THAT'S the color name for the carpeting in our apartment! A necessary evil. Maybe we should rename it...instead of Saddle Tan, maybe Beige Spam?

I can empathize because I feel that way about knitting most shades of pink. I've told people that it burns my fingers and haven gone so far as to change patterns and cut the pink sections out of noro yarn because I just can't deal with pink. Good luck. I'm sure the final product will be great.

The person who named that yarn has never seen a saddle. You know what they say: when you're going through hell, keep on going.

Egads, Saddle Tan looks like the horrific color we must wear on Masters Hoods for commencement ceremonies - of all the colleges within the colleges - the color for the college of Business is DRAB! If any college could have had a better color it should have been business! Green of some shade, like money??? Drab = Saddle Tan

You have my deepest sympathy! I prescribe wine and chocolate...and rapid knitting.

It certainly explains why I have 4 skeins of alpaca lurking in my stash - un-loved and unknit. (It's Pale Amber.) Take heart, perhaps you've saved many people from ever using that colour. Hopefully, though, "Saddle Tan" doesn't sue for damages.

So, what you are saying is that you are not a beige person?

Oh, c'mon, Steph. 22 ridges=44 rows. As fast as we know you knit, it just can't be all that painful. Save the scarf for watching Dr. Who and maybe that will help it be a little less boring. The colors are turning out quite nice. Hopefully by now you have knit into the next color. Who is the lucky recipient?

Hey, Pollyanna moment....with a project this size, someone else can weave in the ends while you keep knitting.take it to knit night , with a couple of crochet hooks :)

I just finished one, last month, for my brother.

It really helps if you can weave in the loose end at the beginning of each stripe. Then you only have to face half the ends when the scarf is complete.

And that colour? Looks like Bailey's Irish Cream, can you get that in Canada?

But at least you're knitting 'the beige' with the divine Signature needles. They'll make any project worth knitting :-)

Ok, you totally need to figure out how to add buttons so I can do this:

love (1)

During my apartment living years I sworn I would never use this colour on my walls - ever. Been true to that for the last 30 years. I feel your pain.
I enjoy your blog. This scarf knitting thing you have on the go had me delving into my stash and I'm casting on for a scarf somewhat similar to yours. This scarf will have a colour somewhat similar to your scarf but I'm choosing to call it "cream".

Saddle Tan reminds me of what my late mother would call a "sensible color." Won't show dirt, is unoffensive to others, and other good qualities I've put behind me.

Does anyone actually spill only on the sections of clothing where it won't show?

I do, however, like your choice of yarn brand. I never finished the sweater for which I bought it (the child grew faster than I knit), but I like the way it feels and looks and in a bright color is very nice.

But those needles under that awful beige are amazing! I would be concentrating on that colour instead.

Robin at 4:03: get thee to a hand dyer. I have several cones of natural alpaca. My friend has done some awesome dying on it. Alpaca takes colour very well.

Do you have a trick for making that yarn less itchy? I just made a cowl with it, soaked in Soak, and it still makes me incredibly itchy. I'm not allergic to wool, so I know that is not the problem. I am very sad because it is a really good cowl.

Hang in there--it will eventually be over. Unless, like me, the recipient showed it to a friend who also wanted me to knit one. So I made two of the suckers. Never again!

I misread the colour all the way through your entry. I thought you were writing Saddie Tan. Seems appropriate under the circumstances.

I'm with the others that suggest liquid courage. I hate knitting scarves, and the thought of knitting a 12-foot garter stitch scarf just sets my teeth on edge. I admire your perseverance and I know it will be awesome.

I like Uny's idea of opening a beer....or a nice piece of dark chocolate..one to get you started on the saddle tan...then two more when you've finished with that color....hmmm which is better dark beer or dark chocolate?

I haven't read the other comments yet, so pardon me if I'm repeating the ideas of others, but I think you need a stack of movies to get you through that "department of motor vehicles" beige colour. It's the exact colour of an office I worked in, and hated, for several years. At least I had a lovely wood to look out into when the beige got to be too much to bear. So, some movies to watch, and a beverage at your side. Maybe a special coffee. Chocolate mudshake coffee is really good...

I had an idea but Janet @ 12:19 beat me to it by hours. I find dark or near-dark conditions the perfect antedote to less-than-fabulous colors. Even the warm glow of a fireplace or not-very-bright lamp can be transformative, and if there's any compensation to miles of garter stitch (you couldn't pay me any amount of money to a Who scarf, but then I LOATHE garter stitch with a deep and powerful loathing), it must be that it's knittable in the dark!

I knitted a cotton bath mat out of that color. It's great because the cotton nicely absorbs my feet water when I step out of the shower. And the neutral color has worked for years in different bathroom color schemes. Otherwise, I totally hate this color....

Oh, wait! Forget the chocolate mudshake coffee, it's beige!! You need a glass of red wine. And I like the suggestion of putting on some tinted glasses.

Take saddle tan with you to a movie and knit in the dark!

Ah, so many of us have gone through the "oh my hell, please no more of that FREAKING TAN!"

Nice! The Scarf was my first knitting project that wasn't a super-bulky scarf, and it took me about a year. Lots of movies and lots of Doctor Who were how I got through it. Oh, and realizing that I was capable of knitting by feel, so I didn't have to look at the thing while I was working on it. Knitting the beige section in the dark = awesome. :)

Yes - a truly awful color. I've never met a brown I liked.

Why not just knit fewer saddle tan rows? The knitting police say it has to be 22 ridges and no less? EZ would tell you that you are in charge of your knitting : )

Hang in there, it's only a few more rows :)

Dear Mady,
you do not mess with the Scarf pattern.
Love,
Who fandom

;-)

Go to any purse or boot section of a store and ask to be shown to the "saddle" colored section. It doesn't look like that, I guarantee you. That yarn does, however, look like that terrible apartment wall color that is apparently universal across the country. I vote for all of these things: change the name to Baily's Liquor, open a beer, and turn on a movie when the time comes to knit more rows of Baily's Liquor colored yarn. I know you can knit garter stitch without looking at it.

Butterscotch pudding anyone?

Yin

Say no more. Am struggling through a medium grey P1, K1 infinity scarf myself!

Hey I refer to this color as doll face. In a fabric form it is the same tone and yes, reminds you of basements or 50's color walls.

A drywaller I once knew called that wall color "cowardly beige". And my LYS has a very nice, very experienced knitter working there who leads me to that color every time I ask her for advice about a yarn choice. I have learned to laugh.

I have to agree! When I knit my husband a Doctor Who scarf I HATED those sections.

It appears that the monotony of Saddle Tan in garter stitch has allowed your mind to wander to some very creative writing places! Perhaps there is the making of your next book in the drudgery that is Saddle Tan...? Or the key to World Peace? the American Health Care System?

Just some thoughts...(especially if you're pondering all the other things you could be doing instead of knitting Saddle Tan in garter stitch)

I saw your loving thoughts on this dismal color and I have to share a truly off color joke with you. I am sorry lol but I must. I heard it in 8th grade and it has stuck with me enough to become an intractable part of my person. The idea has become a personal, life long unspoken motto against the concept of beige in any way shape or form that I hope you will appreciate. My apologies in advance.

There are three type of women in the world...

Those paid for services rendered who urge "Faster, Faster!"

Those lovers and mistresses who whisper, "Slower, slower..."

And the wives who stare at the ceiling and say to themselves, "Beige. I think I will paint the ceiling beige."

I so feel your pain sister! During this long, dark Alaskan winter I am knitting a taupe wrap for my cousin. A very large, long and very taupe wrap. Very long - did I already mention that? I will never knit with any shade of brown again - I swear on my stash!

Maybe think of 'saddle tan' as the color of a nice milky tea? good luck...

Geez, you can knit with your eyes closed can't you? It's a great skill. I was practising in case I became blind in my old age, but it works for icky colours too.

What a perfectly wonderful ode to dreck.

[Though, sadly as I can't help gloating a tiny bit, I'm doing jumpy claps here because a late Christmas present from a friend who knows me well was a "Knitting Trekkie" apron. No Saddle Tan. Just a nice navy blue.]

As a color, saddle tan isn't so bad. After all, it's not putty. It's not beige. It's not 80's-style mauve. It's not Pepto-Bismol pink or Barbie fuschia. It doesn't remind one of a bruise, or raw flesh, or something the pet left on the carpet, or something best flushed down the toilet. It doesn't induce eyestrain.

Instead, saddle tan is a warm, calming neutral that plays well with most other colors. It might even be considered as among the color wheel's best neighbors.

Now, I will echo the advice of others: Every time you hit more than two rows of saddle tan, have a beer, or a Saurian brandy, or a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, or a Romulan Ale, or some screech, or some of Granny Clampett's Rheumatiz' Medicine, or. . .;-)!

Sometimes you really give me the laugh I need and no one else but other knitters would understand.

Thanks for the laugh!

Just in case you don't have the link, there's a group on Facebook for scarfknitters (and other prop/costuming type people): https://www.facebook.com/groups/stitchesintime/

saddle tan ugh ugh ugh,,,I dread when those interminable rows come up in the pattern ..the garter stitch is bad enough but that color is the worst of the worst I saved one stretch for a chorus concert where I could knit in the dark to avoid the eye pain. What other project could any other knitter possibly ever ever use it for I wonder? or does it only exist for this test of sanity scarf? although I laughed out loud at the dust bunny comment, you are still ahead of me in knitting this and I started in November!

I'm sure you hear this constantly, but you are truly my favorite blogger ever. Every single thing you post is either educational, inspirational, or funny as all hell. Thank you. :)

Actually, a lot of the colors in that scarf are pretty horrible.

Well according to my computer monitor, I agree, it's effing ugly!

I love this colour! So do it for me.

Maybe you could think of it as "lucious caramel" and put different mental images with the name. It would save your reaction for more worthy causes. :o)

I have one lonely skein of Nature Spun Sport Saddle Tan. Every time I dive into my charity yarn box, it gets passed over. Yeah, that Saddle Tan is going to be in there for a long time.

That is some real even garter stitch. Saddle Tan is painful.

Something like this would almost convince me of the need to buy one of those knitting machines...

If ever there was a color that needed a really good tv rerun to knit to, it is Saddle Tan.
When you are done with the scarf, can I suggest Garter Squish by Stephen West?:)

Oh Lord, I just looked up from my computer. Every wall in the room I'm in is painted that color!

Would it help if I mentioned I did see a refrigerator this color once?

And at times like this, we must ask ourselves - What would Donna Noble do? Or, as Oswin would, bake a souffle.

Have some jelly babies while knitting!!

And remember you are knitting the awesomest gift ever. (The Fourth Doctor is forever my favorite, with the Tenth Doctor a close second.)

I had about 2500 yds of that color, only I called it Puppy Poop Tan. Had to dye that crap red just to make life worth living again.

At least this is the last large block of the evil color.

Why do so many people knit the first-season scarf?
In the later seasons the scarves had different colors. One was almost entirely rust red.

My *bathtub* is Saddle Tan. I almost didn't take the apartment because of it, though Iove everything else about it. Six years on, I still hate the tub.

Every one of the eighteen military quarters I have lived in was paintd that shade of 'yuck'. It is horrible and soul-destroying. Thinking of it as 'Baileys Irish Cream' doesn't really help!

Ha. Knitting the damn scarf is the least of the evil. I knit one last year for my son (more first series -y), and it was the sewing in of the ends that made me want to run screaming for the hills. He's worn it three times btw. Three! THREE!

Ooh! I can't wait to start hating this color too... I can't seem to find this yarn in the Netherlands so I probably won't even get the chance.. lucky you!

I too have suffered with that colour - it was the shade of the bathroom suite when we moved into our house which not coincidentally was the first thing we ripped out. Do the comments of all those who have also suffered the beige make you feel less alone in your quest to overcome the effects of saddle tan?

It's all in the name (though "saddle" and "tan" are not bad words in and of themselves. . .) But maybe you can try to Martha things up a bit, and call it Toasted Hazelnut or Cafe au Lait. Or would that just make you want a snack?

For all the pain...gotta say...it's pretty gorgeous.

What you need is - a pair of rose-tinted sun glasses!

I once used a journal that was broken into sections of different color paper. The entries I wrote on the ugly brownish pages were the most gloomy of all. Keep going! It will make the rest all the brighter.

My saddle tan is orange. I've never been able to finish a project with large amounts of orange in it. If you get through the saddle tan scarf, you'll beat me!

Agree.

You know Dr Who is on Netflix instant view now, even most of the old ones. What you need is a good ole Dr Who marathon to ease the pain of the worst shade of mid-century modern.

It is, unfortunately, the major colour in the scarf. Even in the worsted weight version, I ended up using 2 full skeins of 100g and a bit, verses, oh what, 1 skein of the purple, which barely sees the light of day. I feel your pain, but in the worsted version, I think there's 40 odd rows of it at max in one section alone. I've just finished the last green section in the 3rd quarter of the scarf. Ironically ran out of green just before the last row too. Only bought one skein. Too bad. Trimmed it down a row. Next colour!

Better Saddle Tan than Cockaroach brown. I had to use both of these colors for an order in November. I hated every waking moment of it until I had sewn it all together. It was pretty striking. (Ugly but striking.)The woman who ordered it LOVED it. Go figga.

Just realized that my entire townhouse is painted in this colour, except for the one wall that is bright red.

Saddle Tan? It sounds like a color name from the 1960s or even 1970s to me. I'll bet vintage shops, thrift stores have scores of sweaters knit in Saddle Tan. They languish because of their color, no one wants them because they're so plan. It's hard to be a Saddle Tan sweater. Try it sometime, just for 24 hours. Be Saddle Tan, and you'll appreciate being Sea Blue or even Passionate Purple.

That is the color of the vinyl upholstery in cheap 1970's cars. I have PTSD related to that color. Ick.

I hope you get through without too much angst! I have a needlepoint that I absolutely hated when I finished. Put it in a drawer and wouldn't even look at it for several years. Now it's framed and on my wall and everytime I look at it I think about how pretty it is and that I'm glad I actually finished it...maybe the scarf will be the same for you!

I feel the same way about the color Oatmeal although I like to eat oatmeal especially with apples, walnuts, and maple syrup. I hope there is a benefit to this as a process besides the finished product, but I doubt it. The suggestion of knitting this is in a darkened room watching a movie sounds good to me.

Absolutely! I really think a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster would be the ideal drink. Find your towel and DON'T PANIC! Then knit some more rows.

This could help :-)
http://www.ravelry.com/groups/dr-who-scarf-support-group
One of the tags for my Dr. Who scarf project was "omgsomuchgarterstitch". My husband asked for the Season 16 version...basically two put together.
It may not seem like it, but it will end...someday. And there will be bright, beautiful non-saddle tan colors to knit.

Donna V in Nebraska
dehpenguin on Ravelry

Ugh, cringing for you. I second everyone who says drink when that color comes up.

Although I don't usually have a big hate on for tan, I must say this particular shade brought back memories of the HUGE cabled cardigan I did for my dad a few years ago. I thought it would never end. It did, eventually, and he loved it, but yikes...I haven't gone out of my way to knit it since. The evidence:
http://practicalcrafts.blogspot.com/2008/05/declare-victory-and-move-on.html

LOL! Serenity prayer, serenity prayer, serenity prayer. You can do this, an emotional reaction can be modified. No way out but forward!

I had a very similar experience with this same shade of brown (although it was knitpicks snickerdoodle, but it was the same color) When I was done with that project, I declared I would not use the color again.

Apparently I'd forgotten the lesson because later, I purchased snickerdoodle again for other projects. But I've returned it for a new color. Twice.

I knit my father a pair of socks this past Christmas in that color. Very boring, but he was very thrilled to receive them- he picked out the color too :)

Good luck! It's really looking quite nice :)

Could be worse. Could be harvest gold- or maybe avocado green. There I dated myself. Those lovely colors from the 70s. We had a house built. Painted flat white. They offered a custom paint job for 15000. Colors- all off-white. LOL. Just remember ya dont have to look at it to knit it- Thats what garter stitch is for.

Since we all know you can knit in the dark at the cinema, or at least I think you have said in the past you can I think you need to go and watch a movie while you knit that colour. I really hate it too for all the reasons above, but think the scarf needs it to balance the colour. Xx

The entire outside of our house was that color..The previous owner was a painter, and dumped all the leftover paint into assumedly a rather large container and came up with...that color. BUT 22 ridges can be done while watching something lovely going on outside the window, or with a favorite movie on the tv or something such?? to save your sanity of course....

Its garter stitch, I bet you could do knit it with your eyes closed.

Your pain apparently calls to me, because against all logic I now want to make this even though I am not buying yarn this year if at all possible.

I love everything about this post. This is why knitters are awesome. We take things we hate, we put up with them, and we even see their value and even beauty, where they clearly have none. This is why the world needs knitters.

Hello. My name is Jaime. I have a confession. My Time Traveler inspired scarf may be short a few rows of the dreaded Terrible Tan Tint of Torture. I admit it. The first step is admitting you have a problem.

When I moved in to my current house (almost 8 years ago!), EVERYTHING was painted mauve. It was a shade of mauve that was not quite pink or beige or grey or white or anything decisive enough to warrant being called a "color" - and I still hate the indecisiveness of that particular shade. I reacted by painting nearly every wall a definite color (the bathroom was, for a while, a nice deep plum). I've since got past that and now have nice tan-colored walls (almost exactly Saddle Tan shade!) that set off my furnishings nicely, and have a warm cuddley feel to them. They're not mauve; they're "sandpiper". HUGE difference.

I feel your pain.

I loves me some Saddle Tan. And Builder's Beige. But then, I'm an oatmeal cookie sort of person. I do understand the blandness of it and can see why others hate it. Just think how much you'll enjoy the next knit that won't included Saddle Tan and its ilk. I hope you and the scarf will be on speaking terms when it's finished despite the bland spots.

But it's garter stitch! You can look at TV instead of your knitting! Besides, Saddle tan is better than dormitory green. YUCK! I have teen aged grandkids and I can still close my eyes and see that awful dirty pale green. And when you get through that tan you are REWARDED! With nice colors!

I read this last night and then while I was driving around Portland saw a car in that exact color. Why would someone chose that? It was rather hideous.

pretend it's beach sand!

Thank you again for making me laugh...can't help but notice history of trauma and certain colors: transfer tan? dormitory green? cockroach brown?. yikes. in my neck of the woods the crappy rental apartments were painted in'parkchester puke' aka saddle tan. BTW, China White and renter's apts? Really, really bad association there...the scariest thing? We will never run out of saddle tan. It's always there...when all the other colors are sold out...what are you left with? You got it.
Add some whipped cream to that cosmic latte and knit on...

DEATH TO THE SADDLE TAN!
A POX ON ALL THINGS SADDLE AND TAN!