Ok, so you've finished your project - and as you cast off you've planned the blog post, planned the photos, your excitement growing for showing this project off, the comments come in with your castoffblogpost and you are literally flush with the joy of having finished something...and then somewhere down the track, a day, a week, you realise you're not so in love with it, and then the guilt sets in. Hands up - we've all had those projects. I have them in my drawers and wardrobe.
But that's NOT what this post is about.
This is about a project which was finished a little while ago - Madeline Tosh's Mara scarf. One I intended to write the blog post for straight away, intended to photograph properly straight away, intended to get out there into the world, and I didn't. This was the 'fill in' project - one I felt quite ambivalent about making while I was making it, designed to fill in time between more important projects, to fill in spare spots of time when I could pick up and put down quickly, take with me on holidays etc. It took a long time to finish, and there were points in it that I thought it might never actually get finished [the first half took forever, the second half went by in a flash despite there being twice as many stitches]. It got finished. It looked lovely.
And I have worn it every single day since finishing it.
Sometimes all day, sometimes only part of the day when I'm out, but every single day it has been worn. And the comments from people have been so lovely, and there's been lots of them. Possibly the most I've ever received for something I've knitted [outside of the online knitting community]. And that totally warms my heart - that makes everything so much nicer about this. It is so deliciously warm and snuggly, structured without obtuse decoration, and the perfect silvery grey. All of that somewhat surprises me - it didn't start out as that kind of project, but sometimes these things do surprise, and you end up loving them.
I should do fill in projects more often!
[Details including amendments and more photos at Ravelry - and there's a sneek peek of the BIGrubble I'm wearing as well]
*as an aside: today is for reflecting back, not only on a project which has turned out so unexpectedly wonderfully, but also to look back 3 years, to the day my bother in law died, and our world spun too quickly in the wrong direction. 3 years on - the sun is warm and bright today, the trees have started with their spring blossom, and some their new spring leaves, and life moves on, grief eases and memories shine. It's a good day.
