449 Days Ago...

Finished something! The Double-Sided Reverse-Negative Hello Kitty Illusion Scarf is FINISHED! This was my "fun, whimiscal knit to start 2010" - started it on the first of January last year, and finished it on Saturday. That's 449 days, kids. For a scarf. Although there's a perfectly rational reason for a scarf to take a year, two months and twenty-five days to knit - because it was really TWO scarves, and each of them was an illusion scarf. That had to be reverse-negative mirror images of each other. And it worked - here's my proof:


Being several layers of non-breathable acrylic, this scarf is quite heavy - and it's WARM. Which, as it turned out, was necessary - suddenly, it's winter here again!


So, scarf is finished, and it's a "real" item off the list. (And I'm turning it in as my Headmistress' Challenge for this term, too, which was the *real* incentive to finish it up once and for all!)

And here's that turn-in, just because...

Dearest Headmistress, this is CraftyGyrphon, Third Year Slytherin, with her Message to her Earlier Self.

Dear Self of January 1, 2010: **Don't do it.** Yes, you know you want to cast on that "whimsical" little Hello Kitty scarf you found a few years back on Ravelry. Yes, you've got pink and black yarn screaming out to become that scarf. The problem with you, though, is that you have "ideas" to "improve" perfectly good patterns.

I know you. You're going to decide that the Hello Kitty and Flower panels in the original pattern, aren't enough, and you're going to design a Happy Star and Happy heart to go with them. And then, about halfway through (or close to what SHOULD have been the end of the new, extended scarf), you'll decide that Illusion Scarf Backs are ugly, and wouldn't it be so much prettier if you just made a back to the scarf? Which, of course, could look like the front. Except... it would be so much cooler if you flipped the images and reversed the colors.

Here's a photo of all that, four hundred and forty-eight days later.
[Insert first picture from above]
Okay, yes, that does look INCREDIBLY cool when laid out like that. But, Past Self, do you see the problem? DO YOU?? Well, let me help. Here is the scarf, finished, four hundred and forty-NINE days later. (And yes, you did grow out your hair, and yes, you have lost weight.)
[Insert other picture from above]
Now do you see the problem? You've got a nice, heavy pink and black striped scarf. The illusion may be visible, from time to time, on one side or the other. BUT NO ONE SEEING IT FINISHED WILL EVER REALIZE HOW COOL IT IS. Seriously. If you're going to put that sort of effort into something, make sure people can see it, okay?

It's not like you know you're about to find a really cool group of folks running amok in an old castle somewhere in England. (You do, by the way. It's called "Hogwarts." Yes, like that Hogwarts. Never mind that right now.) You're just trying to knit something fun. I get that. Fun is good.

So, instead, how 'bout you cast on that nice Henry VIII Alice Starmore sweater you've been thinking about?

Just consider it.

Seriously

Thanks much,
Your Future Self.