A Return to the Old Ways

So I have a purple mess of yarn ends and untried potential to conquer

And a stack of hats just waiting to be blocked.

I was unusually efficient when I knit these hats.  I even wove the ends in as soon as I finished knitting each one.  It really is a quick soak and done situation.

But despite my previous efforts to be a monogamous knitter, to work on one project from start to finish without interruption, I have returned to my slutty yarn ways and decided to ignore my obligations and instead turn to the open arms of a new love

A little cake of unknown origin.

No ball band.  No idea how it came to be mine.  No information on fiber content, yardage, even yarn weight.

It isn't lace weight, but it isn't quite thick enough to be fingering.

Weighing in at 83 grams I'm not even certain it is an entire skein of yarn.  It might be someone's leftovers.

Who knows.

I just know I love its creamy/brown/blue goodness.

I must create something.

I'm feeling unusually scarfy.

Light, lacey scarfy.

Do you ever feel like you spend more time looking at patterns on Ravelry than you spend knitting?

That was me the other night searching for the perfect pattern for my mystery yarn.

Pattern after pattern after pattern.

Until I finally settled on a feathers and fan scarf.

I love feathers and fan.

Until the yarn pools in a weird vertical striping pattern.

And then I hate feathers and fan.

Back to Ravelry I go.

Only this time, in the interest of salvaging my ever dwindling knitting time, I picked the first "yeah, this could work" pattern I saw.

Yeah.  

This could work.

I'm a third of the way through this yarn and the scarf is going to be very short.  Unless I can stretch it long when I block.  When I stretch it it is a perfect size.  The mystery fiber content feels cotton/nylon/acrylicy.  None of which are super awesome at holding a block.  I'm feeling pretty confident that this will stretch and be long and block perfect.  And the second I remove it from the blocking wires it will shrink back up into its previously stubby proportions.

But since I like to flirt with disaster I just keep knitting.

Plus if it shrinks up too short I can always give it to one of the kids.

But realistically I will probably knit this and then shove it into The Abyss to be forgotten and unblocked for a year or two.  Don't worry.  It will have all those shawls I knit last summer to keep it company.