I’m taking scraps from all of the sock yarns and partials and minis that I’ve claimed in swaps on Ravelry and turning them into a swappy scrappy scarf!

I cast on 600 stitches (I think) and am leaving a six inch tail every time I start a new row. Every two rows I am knotting the tails together to create a nice fringe.

These stitches are killing me. My savior is the fact that I get to switch up yarns every 25-30 yards or so, else I might throw things and attempt to kill someone. Also, I knit one of my first rows wrong, so instead of a linen stitch I have this weird loose slipped stitch thing going on. But there is NO way I am frogging this thing. This thing is UNfroggable.

Umm… remember how I said that this things was unfroggable? Yeah… I frogged it. It was driving me crazy today, and I finally couldn’t stand all of mistakes, especially when I know now how to fix them. So I frogged the whole thing, and I’m starting over later tonight (Feb. 7) with hopefully a better start. Only what…100, maybe 200 yards frogged, at tops? Not the end of the world. Still a lot of frogging, though.

I restarted immediately so that this project wouldn’t fall by the wayside. I’m already into my second skeinlet of yarn and am much happier, and I was careful not to drop stitches or get my sides confused. But we are never frogging this again. Tinking, maybe; frogging, no.

I’m loving knitting with all of these different sock yarns. It’s helping me figure out more what I love and what I don’t love. For example, I have found that I absolutely love Socks That Rock, mainly because it’s a nice, round, smooth yarn that feels buttery in your hands. Meanwhile, I have discovered that surprisingly, I’m not too huge of a fan of Knit Picks Stroll sockweight yarn. It’s too thin and seems weak to me.

I’ve officially decided that life is too short to knit with inferior yarn.

This scarf is so. freaking. addictive. I just can’t stop! I seriously just keep going and going and going! It’s actually gotten so big that it’s sort of ridiculous. I think it’s awesome in an insane way. I watch TV and just knit knit knit and then suddenly discover it’s way past my bedtime. I am really enjoying this stitch, now that I’ve gotten the hang of it.

Also, I have so much freaking yarn wrapped up in this project now that I can no longer keep track with my KnitMeter because I keep losing my place - so I’m just going to add up my yardage manually in my notes until I reach the end. This isn’t even all of it, just most of it, as I wasn’t able to calculate yardages for the yarn bits that aren’t in the Rav database, and the few unknown skeinlets I used.

One of the yarns I was really surprised that I liked was Wollmeise. In the skein it’s kind of blah, but when I was knitting with it, it just slipped through my fingers like the softest of yarns. It was sort of dreamy to knit with it. I ended up using 10 whole colors! I used Rubin, Wildermohn, Saami, Schwarz, Single Malt, Rotkappchen, Mistelweig, Feldmaus, Campari Orange, and Zarte Knopse. Wow! I’d forgotten I’d used so many!

Other yarns that really hit the mark on the yarn-love quota were: Sundara, Three Irish Girls Beckon, Plymouth Happy Feet, Madelinetosh, Handmaiden Casbah, Sanguine Gryphon, stimpylab, Old Maiden Aunt, Lion Brand Magic Stripes, Pagewood Farm Yukon, Misty Mountain Farm Jubilee, Fleece Artist Sea Wool, Claudia Hand Painted and Indie Dyer. Basically any of the Louet bases were divine.

There were also a few great yarns in the discontinued indie dyer category, and those were, namely, Cider Moon, Bigmouth Yarns, Yarn Nerd, and Earthly Hues.

It’s June, and I have no urge to knit. It’s just too hot and miserable and I’m shoving this project away and just making stitch markers in the basement to escape the burning sun. (note: I took like a 3+ month break here)

I haven’t photographed my scarf in a long time because I’m embarrassed about how large it is! Hahahah. It’s large enough to be a rectangular shawl! There is a method to my madness, though. I think the fabric is warm but very thin, since this is knit out of fingering weight. So since it is so wide, I can easily fold it over once or twice and make a nice, snuggley fabric with it that has lots of waves and pleats and texture in it. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I knit this wildly at the very end because I was going to visit a friend in Cleveland and I wanted to show it off to her knitting group. I knit it all the way north on the Greyhound and cast off with the last yarn the night before meeting everyone. It went off quite successfully. My favorite part, though, was that a girl on the bus going to Cleveland had watched me knitting it and on my way back, she was there again. I pulled it out to weave in all of the ends (a bus trip is a great time for that) and she was amazed that the bunchy colorful mess I had been working on just a few days before was this gorgeous, massive scarf!

Lastly, I must say that this is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever knit. I’m not one for wildly variegated colors and crazy, off-the-wall fabrics, or anything like that. But I just couldn’t stop knitting this. I love it. :)

Total yardage used: 2,005.8 yards

Meg42 was kind enough to calculate roughly the amount of time and stitches that were invested into my finished project. Not including the frogged bit, mind you. ;)

Total rows knit: 270 rows
Total stitches knit: 162,000 stitches
Total hours spent: 270 hours

Because people have asked, this is knit using the linen stitch. You can find this stitch in a lot of patterns, including several lengthwise scarves. I used a couple of different patterns and linen stitch explanations online to Frankenstein mine together. :D

UPDATE: Hey, look! I went and wrote up a pattern for this! And it’s free! Enjoy, everyone! And if you get the chance, stop by the knitalong for the scarf in my group, Exchanging Fire.

The teacup pin in the pictures was a Christmas gift from knittingale. It’s from this awesome off-the-wall etsy shop called TillyBloom.

Photo courtesy Carol Hoover from Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin’ Sock Club. I thought it was the perfect inspiration image.