Climbing Out of the Thorns

It is rare that one of my projects meets a fury so strong that it must be fished out of the garbage bin after I've calmed down. Kids, this one is it. What. A. Mess.

That's what my Irish crochet scarf from my Japanese crochet book looked like earlier this week. Good grief, I hated it. Never have so many cookies have been consumed during a yarn tantrum like this one.

It's my own fault, really. I went ahead an disobeyed CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS about how many rows to work and what kind of yarn to use. This is my inner headstrong child coming out.

Instructions: Work 50 rows on each side of the scarf. 

Me: Only 50? Nah, I've got so much yarn. I'll just work more and figure out how much I need for the other stuff.

And OF COURSE I ran out of yarn. And OF COURSE I had no idea how much I would need for the rest of the project, because I've NEVER DONE a project like this before. People like me should be put in timeout for not listening. Know-it-all. Show-off. Meh meh meh...

So, I unpicked a bunch of my sewn in ends, ripped back, put things back together, and after I connected the motifs for one side of the scarf, I stopped. I looked down at the myriad of ends I had to sew in, knowing I had to do it again for the other side of the scarf, and... well, I just couldn't face it.

Plot change! I decided I was no longer making a scarf, and made a circular cowl instead. Behold: The Irish Rose Cowl.

I must say that this wasn't really any easier in the end. I ditched the instructions for connecting the motifs to the scarf, because it just wasn't working out. I also had to figure out how to connect one side to the other on my own. It was a lot of work, a lot of scowling and ripping back, but I had committed to the change, and darn it all, I was going to do it. And I was pretty sure I was going to hate the end result, but I didn't want to quit.

But you know what? I love it. 

I loved it enough to fix my hair for the second photo:

I even wore it out to dinner and a show last night. And I'm sure I'll wear it again, many times.

But it's just as they say: Every rose has its thorn. And man, did I feel them during this project. I think I might sit back and do some easy knitting for a couple of days. Never before did the idea of intarsia knitting feel so relaxing...