I think that would be fun... it would also make a cool swap:  each person sends their swap partner a few items and she/he makes something out of them and sends the completed item back...

That's very cool... I'd like to make something similar - How did you judge how large or how to shape the inserted panels?

Those are all really nice scarves for men - thanks for the examples!  I made one very close to your mistake rib one for my husband and he loves it.  I'm going to make him another soon to try to learn to cable...

I also didn't think that the Homespun was bad to work with, but I used it to knit a scarf and hat for my MIL for Christmas - on size 10 needles.  It was pretty fast and easy to knit with, but I think that crochet would be more difficult because it would be hard to find the chains.
I also knit my step-MIL a scarf using Bernat soft boucle, and that stuff was evil!  I had to use 7 needles because the strand is pretty thin, and it kept getting hung up on itself.  If you accidently drop a stitch, forget it, you'll never find it.  You can't use either of these yarns to make fringe, so on the boucle scarf I crocheted a ruffle on either end, and it was really really difficult to find the stitches - luckily it didn't need to be exact.
The homespun scarf I'm thinking of making an edging crocheted with simply soft.
I'm going to stay away from novelty yarns as much as possible from now on, and rely on nice patterns to make things pretty!

Would the drop stich scarf pattern work with any odd number cast on, or multiples of 7, or what?  I'm thinking about using the pattern to make a scarf for a friend, but I'd like it a little bit wider...

I'm going to sign up for this once my 30 day "probation" is up

I'd love to do this... after the holidays!

That is beautiful, as is everything that you make... I checked out your blog, and I'm so jealous of your skills it makes me crazy!

those are cute!  where did you find the pattern?

I'm going to have to go buy the book now just for the granny square pattern!  It's so cute - nice job!