FOs & UFOs*

*Finished objects and unfinished objects, that is.

As the days get cooler, cozying up on the sofa and knitting becomes more and more what I want to do. The up side is that I actually finished my "Good heavens, this is going to take forever on size 3 knitting needles" scarf. The down side is that not much else is getting done around here, although I think I may have elevated Sofa Sitting to an Olympic art form.

I started this scarf forever ago, using Bamboo yarn from Loops and size 3 or 4 needles. I saw how pretty Tulsa Ho's scarves were from the same yarn, and wanted something soft and elegant but a little edgy--hence the lime green yarn. As you know, cats are attracted to photo-taking opportunities when yarn is involved. Here's Max, "helping":

This was before I tucked in the ends and blocked it. Fiona couldn't stand not being in the spotlight, so here she is, also "helping":

Here is a picture of the actual finished project, blocked and all (this was my first serious attempt at blocking):

I love this chevron pattern, which is from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Muy bonito, if I do say so myself! Success!

And now we talk about unfinished objects (grump, grump, grump).

Intarsia is a nightmare. Whoever thought this technique up should be smacked upside the head. In theory, it's simple; alternate between two or more colors to create a pattern in your knitting. In reality, you end up with lots of loose yarn ends and bobbles hanging off the back of your work. And if you're all ADD like me, reading the instructions takes too long and you just want to get started and how hard can it be, anyway? Well, I'll show you.

Here's the front. There are random stitches of black interspersed where they aren't supposed to be, which I don't like. I was not motivated to do it over, however. This is the first of two scarves that I'm making for Robert & Zak. I wanted to put "R" on one end and "Z" on the other to represent their "RZ Studios" venture. Ha.

Sure, you're thinking to yourself, that's not so bad. Well, let me give you a close up look:

See what I mean? Meh. Aaaaaand, here's what the back looks like. It will shock you to know that I have already woven in several of the ends.

The "Z" was the easy part. I can't even think about the "R" yet. At least now I'm on the straight red part of the project, and seed stitch is easy enough to do without giving it too much attention. You can expect another post on intarsia in a few weeks, mostly with me yelling and cursing about how stupid it is and swearing never, ever to do it again. I think I'll go look at my pretty green scarf now...