Whining and Complaining Again

Well, I'm getting to the point where I want to be DONE with this blue and red spin. And I'm pretty sure the rest of this yarn wants me to be done with it also, because I'm embarrassed to say I can't seem to get a stupid simple scarf made. One that will go with the hat, but also just be a comfy, wumfy neck warmie scarf on its own.

The thing is, I hate wide scarves because my neck isn't any six inches long and I don't like stuff doubled up around it. Reminds me waaaaay too much of when I was little, and in those days the favorite remedy for EVERYTHING was that your mother would smear greasy Vicks Vapo-rub, still packaged in the dreaded cobalt blue jar, all over your neck, THICK! And then she'd cover that with a flannel rag that she'd wrap around your neck a zillion times and secure it with a couple of diaper-sized safety pins, and then feed you Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup (or Chicken Noodle if you were really snargly), and then put you to bed where you'd lie there as stiff as a board, terrified to go to sleep in case one of those safety pins came undone and stabbed you in the neck or throat.

The other reason I hate wide scarves is that they never fit under my coat collar without bunching everything up. My collar sure can't lay over a fat, thick, bunchy scarf. The ONLY thing I do like about wide scarves is in case I were to be driving home from somewhere on a freezing cold, dark night with high, icy winds, and run out of gas or something and not have my cell phone or be able to get reception, and have to get out of the car and walk to somewhere, and need it to wrap over my whole face like they do in the Middle East. But that just doesn't ever happen.

The original scarf (a twisted drop stitch) was way looser knit, but Jenny said it looked too narrow next to the hat, and Peggy said the kind of stitch was too different from the hat, and they were both right. Either it had to be wider (in that loose weave drop stitch pattern) or narrow would be okay in the ribbing that the hat's made of. I opted for the latter.

Well, I've tried close to TEN different combinations of ribbing, in size 13 needles and even tried a 15 to make it a relaxed scarf. They all sucked. I even tried the same pattern my first spin's scarf was made in, and that sucked also. All of them were just too tight and stiff and stuffy feeling. And THICK!!!

Finally, I kept looking at the hat and IT didn't bunch and curl, and IT was 2x2 ribbing! So the only difference was, IT was made with size 11 needles. Well, I was under the distinct impression that the smaller the needle, the tighter and bunchier would be the knit. But the hat isn't bunchy. It's floppy and relaxed. So hell, why not frog the thing a 9th time and try the size 11 needles. So that's what I did this morning.

STILL!!! It's STILL thick and bunchy! This ribbing is just three freaking blobs of thickness that curl up on themselves, each rolling into a tight wad of snitty annoyance.

Here's what I mean.


Okay, here's a view of it from the side, standing on edge. I mean, even the fact that it WILL stand on edge tells you what's hate-worthy about it. Would you want something wrapped around your neck that will stand on edge?? Well, after I took this picture, I laid it flat on the table and stood the ruler on end, and the thing is 3/4-inch thick!!



Nothing floppy about this scarf. I keep thinking if I get more length knit onto it maybe it would become more floppy. But I don't think so. I also thought maybe if I were to wet it and block it on a big cardboard box with a zillion pins pulling at it all along its length, maybe it would stretch out and be floppy. But who wants to go through that? And I don't think it would stay floppy anyway. It would just BOING BOING BOING back to its snitty tight little self. And I'd hate it.

Well, I don't know how many more times I can frog this same yarn, because it's been a good eight times for sure (probably more) already, but that's what's going to happen to it yet AGAIN!

Crap.