More puttering...

When it gets hot inside the house (we don't have air conditioning), the brain doesn't concentrate on school very well. Right now, it's about 85-degrees in the house.  Not to worry. It's over 10 degrees warmer than that outside. So, I thought I'd share some additional play-time with you.

Over the weekend, I started digging into boxes to find knitting & crochet patterns and things to encourage my brain to play a little. [Not to mention finally getting everything into one location, and it's still not all done!] In that foray treasure hunt, I found little proto-projects (i.e. sample patterns) that I'd entertained over the years for making toys or gifts. I also found bags with left-over yarns from completed projects.

As the hunt continued, I found a bigger knitting project that I had started back in 2005 during a particulary rough onslaught of funerals that Mr. Squirrel and I endured (which included the passing of both of our fathers... within 33 days of each other). The knitting project was just an extra wide scarf in the most uncomplicated stitch (knit one row, purl one row). No patterns, no nothing. It was a baseline sanity saver; something to let my hands work when my brain was so numb I couldn't think on anything, or a retreat when I simply didn't WANT to think on anything. I actually worked on it for several months and probably got 75% of it completed... then life kicked back into full speed... and I never touched it again.

Fortunately, with my recent re-ignited love of knitting, the little tug-of-war with myself that happened when I rediscovered the unfinished project didn't last long. The battle for finishing it outweighed the memories that it brought to the surface. [Thankfully, enough time has passed that the memories coming to the surface are more fond than they are sad.]

So, Sunday afternoon, it began -- again. Picking up the needles and the yarn, I found that I actually had to go back to the books and relearn how to knit, how to purl, and how to cast off. That much time had passed, and unfortunately, I tend to hold the yarns differently than anyone else I've encountered, so first I had to figure out how "they" do it. Then, I could go from there and rediscover how I used to do it. That hurdle behind me, it all came back with the incredible ease.

The only bad news: After a few hours of working the rows, I found that I really didn't want to finish such a boring (if beautiful) piece (monotonous pattern, monotonous color). At the same time, I also didn't want to start working on a new project when I had a perfectly good one in progress. So, creator's perrogative: I changed the plan.

The original plan: An extra wide scarf, long enough to put pockets at the ends for hands to tuck into at football games.

The new plan: A hooded scarf/cowel.

Although my hands always get cold, and the scarf with pockets might have been the better idea, this was a faster finish. So, here is the final product.

[I'm also quite glad that my first SCA helmet -- the closest thing I have to a human head -- doesn't mind the hot temperatures and makes a reasonable display

The current length allows me to wrap both 'wings' around my neck to meet in the back, like a bulky cowel. I may eventually crochet more rows onto the ends to make it longer (purples and reds would be pretty). However, right now, it may be better for wearing underneath coats, so length may not be necessary. [Not planning to test that until the temperatures drop again!]

Luckily, this blue is in fact darker than the blue in the slippers. I can get by wearing this color better than the other (and the white crochet border helps, too -- added to tame the natural curl of the knitting, an oopsie in the original plan that I hadn't allowed for).

Although I think a warmer color would have been a better choice, I had a huge 1-pound skein of this very soft yarn gifted to me... with the unknown size of the original/final project, it was a no-brainer what color I was going to have to use! 

But for an experiment, it turned out not-too-bad.
 ;-)