Letting go of something that doesn’t work for me, and creating it into something that does.

It can be hard to give up and walk away from something you have started 8 years ago and put considerable time and effort into, but you gotta make a brutal decision at some point if it just doesn’t work for you.

That could be a metaphor but I am actually talking about knitwork here. I’ve had this damn scarf project going on for 8 years. I know that for a fact because I found the order slip at the bottom of the stash for this yarn and it was from 2014.

Now, you might think I’m committing some sort of sin by unraveling a scarf that is quite long already, and arguable not that ugly even.

The scarf is done with a pretty cool slip stitch technique where you do colourwork by carrying only one yarn at a time, something you might want to look into if you struggle with stranded knitting. There are limitations but it is a fun technique for some projects. The yarn used is a sport weight pure alpaca by Drops and it’s soooooo nice, soft and really a joy to work with.

BUT,

When I started the scarf I should have done some sort of edge stitching so that it wouldn’t curl up on itself this badly. Sure there can be something done by blocking it but it would still curl up in wear. The other thing is that this is really not something I’d realistically wear, not my style, and I can’t think of anyone else to wear it either.

I’ve come back to this project from time to time but I have no motivation for it so it’s always a struggle and I don’t enjoy doing it. Because the yarn is very soft and beautiful, instead of tossing the whole project, I am going to unravel it all instead.

Unravelling is annoying both mentally and in practise. It’s never fun to destroy hours and hours, here probably 50+ hours of work. It’s also annoying to then work from the previously unravelled ball of yarn that is curled up and just rolls around in a basket. I’m gonna ask Santa to bring me a yarn winder so I can make unravelled yarns into pretty cakes.

It probably took me over an hour to unravel all this because every two rows is a different colour and because it’s been in storage for so long, the yarn kind of fuses together in some parts and you have to carefully pull them apart.

I finally got it all done and put in storage with the unused yarns of the same kind. I think this looks like I’m going to make a beautiful soft striped sweater from these. I wonder why I have forgotten this yarn excist in my storage because my god is it soft!

I really enjoy working more with thinner yarns because the results often look more professional rather than crafty, and it keeps me entertained longer. This hobby (read: obsession) of mine has become rather expensive because I can make a sweater in two weeks and the cost of the yarn for it can be anywhere between 50-150€, you do the math…

I think my sweater will be primarily grey with different blue stripes, and I’m gonna save the black yarn to make a sweater for the man, just have to get more of it. Luckily this yarn is on the affortable side and quite easy to get. Now I just need to find suitable patterns, as most sweater pattern are for DK weight yarn and I need something thinner. Of course I can just go up a size and do some math but I’d like to avoid that if possible.

What would you knit from this yarn?