Simple Things

As I said when I started this blog, I never finish anything, knitting-wise.  I have hundreds, thousands… nay, millions of unfinished projects lurking in dark corners of the house, all hoping that the sun will shine on them again one day.  It’s just get so excited by trying new things — new stiches, new patterns, new shaping, new yarn — that it’s impossible to resist until I’ve finished whatever I’m currently working on, and I find myself casting on something new — just to see — before the current project is even cool on the needles.  And that’s ok, because I don’t knit for the final product — I’m a process knitter.  It matters less to me to be that I come away with something at the end than that I just enjoy the knitting.  The click-clack of the needles, and feel of the yarn in my hands, the smell of the wool, and the rhythm of the stitches…  That’s what it’s about for me.

But when I saw Mary-Heather‘s Simple Things shawlette, I wanted it.  I wanted it.  And that was a strange sensation — and one I didn’t trust.  But I realised the project was small enough and quick enough that I might actually have  a shot at getting it done before I moved on, like a drifter, to the next shiny thing that caught my eye.

No pattern available yet, but I studied Mary-Heather’s photos and reckoned I could work out at least a good approximation of the pattern.  And so I looked through my stash for some decent yarn to try it out with, and cast on.

The funny thing is, I didn’t like the yarn as I was knitting.  I wasn’t sure I liked it in the ball, but the more I knit with it, the less I liked it.  The colours jarred.  And pooled.  It felt scratchy.  It was too marroon-y, and I didn’t like the yellow or the orange bits.  Time and again I thought to myself that I would just rip it all out and start over with another yarn…  but I never had one to hand at that moment, so I carried on.

I finished it on the way home from MDSW and here’s the crazy thing about this scarf: as soon as I put it on, I loved the yarn.  Loved it!  Couldn’t stop looking at it!  Then I took it off and looked at it and…  I didn’t like it.  Put it back on, and loved it…  Took it off again, and didn’t like it.

And, I still don’t like it.  Until I put it on — and then I love it.  I just totally don’t get that.