When In Doubt

Plan another project. When winter comes, and you know spring is still way too far behind, make the project an afghan. Factor in the monochromatic-ness of January in Chicago and you hear the siren song of color.

I'm particularly intrigued by what the wine-colored yarn does for the three dingy sisters there. It's one of those magical, alchemical transformations that knitting performs. The blue and the green are heathered with grey. Very drab looking. Boring, even. They're a throw-back to the days when I let the name of the color influence me. "Bronzed green" and "Colonial Blue Heather" sounded so much more promising than "dirty mold green" and "washed out grayish blue." It means, however, that they'll work just fine with the charcoal grey heather when they become the dots outlined by the dark wine heather in a Big Dotty Afghan. Add in that all this yarn is stash and I can feel not only creative and inspired, but virtuous and economical.

The "Big Dotty" pattern itself is another throwback, this one to Mason-Dixon I. In the book, the pattern is a piano bench cushion. On the blog, Anne (I think it was Anne, although Kay is the knitted upholstery person, isn't she) used cotton double-stranded for seat cushions. Ravelry has various over-sized pillows, a coffee sleeve and a tote. There's a unifying theme to these projects; they all get stuffed or stretched. A way, I assume, to keep the slip-stitch pattern from pulling in on itself. I think, though, that I'll like the pattern well enough even in its natural state.

I like this project on so many levels. The Mason-Dixon-ness of it. The color magic thing. The getting rid of yarn I thought truly dreadful and with which I would never do anything. The best part though? No assembly required.