It's like an FO, but different

Today is Friday, which means:

Unfortunately, while this week has been a busy one, I haven't actually got a Finished Object to share (well, I have finished the secret project, but can't share that till next week).

So I'm going in the opposite direction. Presenting: Frogged Object Friday!

I have a couple of hibernating WIPs. The amigurumi roly poly cat I lost interest in, after completing the body and one ear. I think was amigurumi'd out at that point. The other WIP was a knitted scarf.

The yarn is Zettl Fontana, gifted to me by J's mother along with the Zettl Marbella featured in a previous post. According to Ravelry, I cast on this scarf in May last year. What you see in the photo above had already been frogged and re-started once. For some reason I just wasn't getting along with it.

The pattern was really simple, stocking stitch with a 4 stitch wide border of garter stitch. I don't know why I struggled. But it was a real effort. My stitches seemed really tight, and the yarn was a bit of a pain too, going fluffy in random places and generally misbehaving. I'd been thinking about frogging it for a while, embarrassed to have it sitting unfinished on the shelf for all to see. But I wasn't sure what to do with the yarn.

Thank the gods for Ravelry! A quick search of the database yielded 94 projects using the yarn. Filtering on crochet only, I quickly spotted the project for me.

A Simple Crocheted Scarf, pattern found on Coats & Clark website, picture above belongs to Ravelry member Crocheted. What I loved most about his project (aside from the way the scarves just pop right out of the photo at you) are that he's used the colour I have and the colour I really want to have! I had a chance to get 4 balls in the purple on ebay recently, but missed the end of the auction, I was so cross. Anyway, I digress. Doesn't that picture just make you want to make your own?

So I did. I frogged the scarf while cooking dinner last night, and as soon as I was done eating I got out my (brand new for this project) 8mm hook and got hooking.

The first picture represents hours and days and weeks of knitting. The above picture is about 2 hours worth of crocheting lazily in front of the telly!

Here's a close up.

See, I just love the colour combination too much to let this sit around in my unfinished pile.

Lessons learnt from this little endeavour:

1) Crocheting is quicker and less irritating than knitting. Before you all cry out in support of knitting, don't worry, I'm not abandoning knitting for good, I think I need a more inspiring project to enthuse me.

2) Using the right needle/hook size for your yarn is crucial. I realise now the stitches were so damn tight because I was trying to knit the scarf on 6mm needles when I ought to have been using 8mm or so.

If you want to see actual finished objects instead of my fakery, head on over to Tami's Amis and check out what my fellow bloggers have been up to.