Resurrecting the Eco Wool Afghan

I am generally very good about finishing what I start. I almost never get sidetracked and abandon a project. In fact, so far, I have only abandoned one project to the back burner. That project is the Eco Wool afghan. We bought enough Cascade Eco Wool last year (almost exactly a year ago, in fact) for me to make a full-sized afghan. It has to be about 7 feet long, as Branden is very tall. We picked out 5 colors of the undyed wool that we really liked, and I decided on a cable motif. This was my first time knitting cables, and I absolutely loved it. I made it through the first stripe in no time flat. In fact, I think I made it most of the way through the strip on the train ride down to Portland for Branden's robotics competition last year. It looked like I would be done with my 10 7-foot scarves in no time.



And then, I started on the center stripe. I'm making 8 narrow stripes, and one thick center stripe for the afghan. I made it wonderfully cably. (Sorry...I know it's hard to see...)



I love the way it's coming out, but I don't love working with the dark yarn quite as much. It must come from a different breed of sheep or something, as it's significantly scratchier than the other stuff. I absolutely loved the color, and really wanted to put it in, despite the fact that it's a coarser wool. But, not liking knitting with it as much has really slowed me down. Add to that the fact that I miss-crossed several of the early cables, and perhaps you can see why it's gone on the back burner. I did drop the offending cables and rework them, but I just haven't been enthusiastic about picking that stripe up again. Every time I finish a big project, I pull it out and work a few rows, but my heart isn't in it. That's too bad, because it's really beautiful. I have at least made it almost to the end of the first ball of yarn (another reason I love the Eco-wool...8 oz goes a long, long way!).



Rather than forcing myself to keep going on this stripe, I have started the second white one, and have sworn to finish it before moving on to Branden's sweater. I made it through about 10" while reading my blogs on Saturday (another reason I love big, simple projects; I can read while knitting them!). I'm hoping that I can make myself do one stripe in between each big project, and that this will help move the afghan along, rather than leaving it in limbo forever. Who knows? Maybe I'll even manage to finish this pattern before its second birthday! (A year seems like a reasonable goal...)