yarn barf

Even though February is for Finishing, instead of finishing the 3 WIPs/UFOs I have, I am starting 2 new ones. D'oh! We are going away for the weekend, and I can't bring 2 of the WIPs because they might be gifts for people we will see, and the third WIP is just too hard to work on away from home. So I've started a simple shrug (from One Skein Wonders) using a partial skein of Knitaly and a pair of Irish Hiking wrist warmers using an almost complete skein of Cascade superwash. Hurray for destashing!

I hope I have enough yarn for both projects, but I'm thrilled to be using up some old yarn. The Knitaly was a gift from my husband's then-girlfriend, about 12 years ago. She gave me 2 skeins, some of which I used to make a cabled hat and mitten set (that I gave to someone maybe? I've no idea what became of it.) The Cascade is leftover from E's strawberry cap.

In preparation for knitting away from home I thought I'd wind the Cascade into a ball, since it is currently in a mushroom (I think that's what the young'uns are calling it). In my search for the center of the skein I got a yarn barf, caused by several separate knots and wool stickiness. 30 minutes later I was still cleaning up yarn barf. I know the mushrooms look fancier than the traditional log skeins, but I really dislike them. In retrospect I should have wound it into 2 balls, since I'm making wrist warmers, but I'll just trust that I'll have enough for two.

As for finishing, I am almost finished knitting the hot water bottle cover, and about 70% finished with the afghan. Don't ask about the felted bear, I feel that project is doomed to languish in the UFO box forever, poor thing.