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Keyhole scarf made to get rid of leftovers.

Materials: Red Heart Light 'n' Lofty acrylic yarn and Bernat Soft Bouclé. Size 10.5 aluminum needles.

Time: Several hours distributed over several months.

Cost: $5

I initially bought a skein of Red Heart when I first began knitting to make a hat -- it seemed soft enough at the store. What I didn't realize is that it is absolutely horrid to work with. What to do? Work your way through the wretched stuff just to get rid of it, and throw some leftover bouclé in along with it to make the experience even more distasteful.

The combination of these two yarns on 10.5 needles made for a very thick fabric, so I decided to liven things up a bit and give the scarf a pull-through slot. This was almost disappointingly simple to do. The rest of the scarf was done in seed stitch, just to give the finished product lots of thick and luscious nubby texture. Mmm, thick and luscious nubby texture...

The problem with the Red Heart wasn't that it was an acrylic -- I'm too cheap to be a fibre snob -- but that it was thick, frizzy, and unforgiving. Consequently, it took me several months to finish the thing -- the gauge was fairly large, but the yarns were sticky enough to require altogether too much conentration.

Regardless, I eventually finished it, and the final product is actually quite nice. Because I have too many bad memories associated with its making, I will either give it away or donate it to St. Vinnie's. Jejune originals: coming to a thrift store near you!