FO: Multnomah Shawl

I've been doing the knitting thing again lately. Must be these long winter days of sub-freeezing temps.
This weeks finished object is this little shawl made with Socks that Rock mediumweight sock yarn in the Monsoon colorway.

I got this yarn in a barter deal with my friend Blogless Carla a few years ago. I did some sewing for her and she paid me in yarn. Since then I've tried to turn this yarn into something a few times. One of those attempts almost cost me this finished object, but more on that in a minute.

Just over a week ago I was going through my stash doing some "shopping" so I could cast something on without spending any money. I found a basket of all my pretty handpainted sock yarns. I really don't have much desire to knit socks anymore and some of my favorites are just too pretty for my feet so they've just sat awaiting a nice small project to become. I brought my selections down stairs to my computer and after a quick Ravelry search I found a few possible one-skein projects. I had also just supported the Wool & Co. drive to raise money for Doctors without Borders so I had access to the free patterns they offered as a thank you gift. One of them was a pair of cute fingerless mitts. I decided to cast on for the mitts. I got the first one to the thumb gusset and just wasn't happy. They needed to be just a tad bit looser and I didn't have the next size up in double points or a long circular needle and didn't want to spend money so I frogged them. Then I found the Multnomah pattern on Ravelry. Gotta love free patterns!

Disaster struck after I was through the third lace repeat when I ran out of yarn. I had seen many completed projects in the same yarn and yardage I was using so I was confused. I know my gauge was right on but there was no denying that I was out of yarn and no where near complete. Then I remembered a scarf I had knit with another STR yarn from Carla that I never liked and thought maybe it would look okay with this and I could combine the two. I dug it out of its hiding place in the front closet and started frogging.

Then a miracle happened. I had made this ugly scarf out of both STR colorways, alternating them similarly to the Chevron Scarf but in a drop stitch pattern a la the Clapotis. I never liked it because it rolled and the colors just weren't my colors.

Once it was frogged I had enough yarn to complete the Multnomah.

I love the colors of this yarn. I've been wearing a lot more green lately and just bought some new grey slacks so I think I have a new outfit. I like small shawls like this because I wear them around my neck rather than over my shoulders like a traditional shawl. They fill in the space in my open necklines and don't hang down like a scarf and don't get in my way.


Now I'm being a Patriot and knitting a helmet liner for our troops. After that I think I have a few projects planned for some other reclaimed frogged yarn from unfinished projects that just weren't destined to become FOs.

What are you working on? How long do you let an unfinished project sit before saying forget it and frogging it so it can become something else? Or do you let UFOs marinate for a while and then eventually get around to finishing them? What is the longest a project sat unfinished before you finished it or frogged it?