This is what the current Works in Progress basket looked like 'after' some serious attention (did not occur to me to take a photo in its 'before' state -darn, it was an - um, interesting sight). It was getting to where the decision on what item to work on resulted in wanting to work on them all and then an easier choice was to go read a book. And it was overflowing and things would slither out and fall to the floor with a slithery noise which caused a startle reaction in direct proportion to how close I happened to be to the sound and whether it was day or night.
Well, yesterday I took action. I may have been humming a tune from Man of La Mancha. Some of the things in that basket received a blank look from me and a wonder at how much time it takes before a work in progress becomes a work in regression. I had been working from only the topmost level of the mess heap. There were bits of wool from completed projects, yarn bands with no yarn, cryptic notes, a crochet hook I thought I had lost, a bag of hooks I thought I had put in their proper place and would never have thought to look in the WIP basket had I decided I needed them, and, oh lots of other stuff.
Ruthlessly stuff got tossed into the garbage and did not get retrieved this morning in new light of day.
The items shown in the basket got sorted, commenced but stale projects got frogged and the yarn returned to the stash; unfinished but still-holding-interest things got put on the topmost, visible, "me next! me next" level.
This scarf - or headband - got (very suddenly!) finished. I have been working on it for months at Guild or Knit Cafes or Knitting in Public when more chatting than actual knitting gets done (at least by me). Last night I cut the yarn, threaded it through the loop, pulled it tight, threaded it into body of work, did same with cast on end - and that was that. Boy, did that feel good. I had intended to continue until the entire ball was used. The length it ended up feels just fine around my neck.
I don't know the content of the yarn - it came to me without a band and it may be handspun. Queries at LYS and amongst fellow knitters did not come up with a definite answer. I love the look and the colour and the thick/thin aspect and how it feels to work with and how it feels to wear. It does, however, bleed dye when wet so I will have to avoid wearing it in the rain with a white blouse.
With this project I rediscovered the delight of Tunisian knitting where you use a knitting needle with a hook on the end of it and come up with what is called an afghan stitch. It looks a bit like weaving and it is pleasant to pick up stitches going one way and cast off stitches on the way back along the row. I put a row of dropped stitch in regular knitting between the afghan stitch row segments because I wanted to show the thick/thin texture of the yarn in profile as well as in a group.
The remaining yarn is back in the WIP basket. I made a bookmark out of it when first I got it (my kind of swatching!) and I may make more as gifts. I'll just have to tell people not to use them if reading in the rain.
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