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Prehistoric beast AND huggable toy.

Materials: 3 skeins KnitPicks Wool of the Andes (100% wool) in 23775 Fog, 23442 Hyacinth, and 23432 Cloud. Size 4 dpns. Half a package of cotton balls. Dried catnip. Pattern: Knitty's Nautie.

Time: A couple of weeks.

Cost: $0 (leftover yarn from aborted mitten project)

The last issue of Knitty had absolutely nothing that I'd even remotely want to make, save Nautie. Ancient cephalopods are such a sublimely random thing to knit, so why not? They're cute, and I already had the yarn at hand thanks to a mitten accident a little while ago.

As I was scrounging up yarn, though, I couldn't help but fret about what I would do with the completed hand-crafted nautiloid. I don't want to knit kitch that just takes up room, you know?

So, I decided to make Nautie multifunctional, and put little pinches of dried catnip in along with the stuffing as I rolled up the shell. What better than to give your cat the opportunity to tackle an ancient sea creature?

I made a Clapotis, just like every other knitter ever.

Materials: 3 skeins Araucania Nature Wool Shade #25 (100% wool). Size 6 needles. Pattern: Knitty's Clapotis.

Time: Several months

Cost: $0 (leftover yarn from Mariah)

I had no intention of jumping on the Clapotis bandwagon. It's a big, unwieldy scarf-shawl hybrid that requires lots of expensive yarn, and I don't wear shawls.

Then I ended up with a lot of extra yarn from Mariah. Like, almost enough for another sweater. Or a big, unwieldy scarf-shawl hybrid. Why not?

Even though it became intimidatingly large near the end and ate up every single one of my stitch markers, Clapotis was a very fun knit. Dropping stitches is oddly fascinating, and makes you feel like a rule-bending rebel.

Worth the hype? Well, it's the most interesting and longest-lasting scarf that I've ever knit.