People say a woman’s purse is its own infinite world of curiousities and unexpected danger; while mine definitely qualifies (I feel like Columbus combing through it, minus the ensuing mass murder), my yarn box does even more so. It contains multitudes. Treasures. Disappointments. Plans. Memories. The crafty remains of the past five, six years. There’s always a surprise waiting for me when I open it. After my little craft meltdown, I decided to woman up and embrace all of it, except for the mohair yarn of which I have indefinite amounts that will never be knitted up because I hate mohair. Working with it, that is, I adore touching it.

Bakersfield by Corrina Ferguson has been waiting patiently to be finished in my yarn box. It’s part of the very lovely Sideways Shawlettes collection and is worked side-to-side, perfect for those who find the prospect of knitting shawls the traditional way daunting as of yet. Bakersfield was started in the summer of 2011 with two skeins of Lang Yarns Baby Alpaca that I was absolutely and madly in love with. Baby alpaca is my catnip: when I see it, I rub on it, paw at it, lick it and chew on it. I just can’t resist. However, the shawlette wasn’t destined to be finished that year. It got set aside a few rows before the end when I discovered that one side would turn out to be longer than the other. We can’t have that, can we. Just imagine, it would be so … so … irregular. A horrifying thought.

A few days ago, I ripped out half of the shawlette and knit it up again. It took only a couple of hours, which now seems laughable considering I waited one and a half years to actually do it. It’s still somewhat irregular, but I decided my new policy on crafting is that I’m going to be less OCD about it. Of couse I didn’t do the sensible thing and relaxed the yarn before reknitting it. I soaked the shawlette in warm water after casting of, though, and after blocking you don’t really see the difference. Now I have a new, soft and squishy alpaca shawl in my wardrobe and one treasure less in my yarn box. But don’t worry, I’m sure there’s still plenty in there waiting to be discovered.