Ta da! The Windy City scarf, from Stitch and Bitch (by Debbie Stoller), made with Kerry's fabulous handspun, finally finished and perfect in every way.
And it keeps my neck snuggly warm. A word of advice, though. If you should want to make a cute little keyhole scarf out of one skein of unique handspun yarn which you cannot get more of because more does not exist anywhere in the world, knit only until you have a square and then immediately start the keyhole. Do not delay putting in the keyhole until you've knit and knit and knit, or you will get this.
Several people told me they didn't think it looked bad, but that is only because this photo does not show my face, which is rapidly turning blue due to the STUPID SCARF CUTTING OFF ALL OXYGEN TO MY HEAD. Stupid scarf.
And then I said to myself, "Self," I said, "I am a reasonably smart knitter. Or if not, then I am a really type A persistent-type knitter. I have fixed screw-ups before. I once dropped a stitch in a lace pattern and managed, using only my wits, determination, a crochet hook and a really bright light, to pick the stitch back up after only two solid evenings of staring at it. I can fix this."
So. I started by unraveling the end I had just bound off, thinking I would pick up stitches from the other end and knit down using that yarn. But no. That won't work, because the scarf is in 1x1 rib, and picking up and knitting in the other direction only works with stockinette and garter stitch.
OK, new plan. I would unravel from the cast-on end and use that yarn to lengthen the cast-off end. Except. Trying to unravel 1x1 rib from the cast-on end requires one to pick out every. freaking. stitch. Individually. This is only slightly less painful than plucking out all of your nose hair with tweezers, and slightly less fun.
OK, new plan. I can do this. I'm tenacious. I will cut the yarn at the cast-on end, where I would like the scarf to start, unravel enough yarn to cast off those live stitches, and then use the yarn gained to add to the cast-off end. I cut the yarn, painstakingly unraveled each. individual. stitch, and cast off-
Only to run out of yarn half-way through the cast-off.
At which point I yelled, "@#$%*& it!" ripped the whole thing out, and started over. ( @#$%*& being a word that my mommy doesn't want to think that I know.)
Fortunately it is a quick knit, so it only took a few days to redo, but please, learn from my mistakes. Only you can prevent scarf strangulation.
