Only Six Inches Left

   Last spring I decided it was time to knit something other than dishcloths. I was ready for a real project. It had to be something simple, I'm still a novice. It had to be something useful, but not a dishcloth and not a bag. I had already knitted a bag. I don't count it as a project because all I had to do was knit a large rectangle and sew it together.
  I looked at my knitting book. There were a couple of hats and some scarves. I looked closely at the scarves. Scarves are always useful. I found several possibilities. I narrowed it down to two. One was a wavy scarf. It starts off narrow and then gets wider and then narrow again. I figured this would be a good project because it would teach me how to increase and decrease stitches. The other project was a quick scarf knitting with bulky yarn. You knit a square and sew it together. It's kind of like the neck of a turtleneck without the shirt part. It is a quick project and the results would be nice and warm. I could wear it with my pea coat.
  I made a date with my knitting teacher to go to a yarn shop in White Bear Lake. I knew that she could help me choose a good yarn for my scarf and would also be honest with me when it comes to colours.
  We went to the yard shop. It was very nice. I wanted to buy almost everything there. I managed to confine myself to enough yarn for my projects, a couple of circular needles to use and an extra ball of washcloth yarn. You can never have too much yarn, right?
 I wanted to do the wavy scarf first, before I started working on it I had to learn to do the increases. I tried to figure it out on my own, but soon realized I needed help from my knitting teacher. She was able to show me what I needed to know. I practiced on a ball of cotton yarn until I felt comfortable to try it for real.
  Once I started it I knew that I needed to have a good row counter. Using a notebook would not work because I would probably lose and I hate to waste paper. I found an app and downloaded it onto my IPod. Now I was set. Time for some serious needle work. I made good progress. I had chosen a yarn that had many different colours in it. That way it would match with anything. It was also soft and felt nice to work with. I loved to feast my eyes on all the colours as I knitted.
  I had to take a couple of breaks. I found some lace and knitted a few ruffle scarves. I also had to make a set of dishcloths for a silent auction. I was anxious to get back to the wavy scarf. I wanted to finish it before we took out annual vacation in Door County. I wanted to wear it while we were there.
  I was diligent in my knitting. I worked on it whenever I could. The time paid off. As of today I have only two sections left to finish. I figure that is about six inches of knitting. Then I will be done. All I will need to do is weave in the ends from where I had to change to a new ball of yarn and block it. I have to block it because the edges have curled in. Blocking will flatten those edges.
  As I have come to the end of the scarf I have realized that I have most of a ball of yarn left. I thought I could use it to make a matching hat. There isn't enough yarn in the ball to make a full hat though. Then I had an idea. I would buy a plain colour yarn that would match one of the colours in the ball I have and use it in the hat. Then I would have enough yarn. All I need is a pattern.
  I'm very excited to finish the scarf. I'm looking forward to knitting more things. After I finish the bulky yarn scarf and the hat, I'd like to make a scarf for each of my stepdaughters in their favourite colours. That's in the future though. Right now I need to knit those last six inches. So I'm going to quit now and do just that.