THE WARDEN WENT A-FROGGIN'

One of the things I love most about Debbie Stoller of Stitch 'N Bitch fame (well, besides her sense of humor and clear instructions) is all the new terminology that's now made its way into my vocabulary.  No, I'm not just talking knit and purl.  How about Kitchener stitch, fake grafting, and two-fisted Fair Isle?  (That last one's not dirty...really, it's not.)

Today I give you, unfortunately, my most-used term:  frogging.  Nope, I'm not talking about hitting up watery areas with my spear to catch the little green darlings.  In this case frogging is unraveling your knitting and I mean huge chunks of your knitting, not one little row.  (Imagine a little knitting frog cartoon saying "rip it, rip it" and you understand the term.)  I think I've unraveled as much as I've knitted since I started five months ago, but today I actually get to show you an FO.  (That's "finished object", for the non-knitter.  Yeah, they've got some good acronyms, too.)

Kanani (on left) with Kit.

Back in July, Foghorn received a new American Girl doll for her birthday.  Since it was Kanani, the Hawaiian 2011 Girl of the Year, I thought maybe a new afghan for the doll's bed would be in order.  I found this super-chunky variegated yarn  that yelled "Pacific Ocean" to me and I tweeked a Warm-Up America block pattern I liked for the design.  When I was finished, it totally didn't thrill me.  The yarn was so chunky that the pattern didn't really show up in the finished product.  I gave it to Foghorn anyway and it was tossed onto the back of a little rocking chair in the family room.  And there it sat...all summer long.

The lonely American Girl afghan, unraveling.

As I was going through the yarn stash I found the remaining ball and a half of the yarn and decided to just use it all to make something new.  That's when I started frogging.

The recycled scarf.

Since the yarn is so thick, I decided on a scarf.  It's a very simple pattern and came out way longer than is ideal because I didn't want any of the yarn left over.  Frankly, I'll never use yarn this chunky again.  The patterns don't pop as they do with a worsted yarn and I have to use size 13 needles, which makes me feel like I'm knitting with a couple of cigars.  Not meditative knitting at all.

I'm fairly pleased with the finished product.  I have no idea who's going to actually use it, since my winter coat is red and the thing is too dang long and wide for Foghorn.  Maybe there's a nice homeless person somewhere who'd like a hand-knit scarf...


If you're interested in making this scarf, the free pattern can be found here.   (You'll need to sign up for a free account with Lion Brand to access the pattern.)  Specifics on the scarf I made can be found on my Ravelry page here.  (You'll need a free Ravelry account to access.)




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