the sweater that wasn't

One phenomenon of knitting that I encounter every once in awhile is a change of plan for a particular yarn or pattern. Sometimes, the pattern I have in mind doesn't fit the yarn I have in mind. I'm not sure why this happens - I'm going for the same weight of yarn that's called for in the pattern or I go for a pattern that fits the weight of yarn that I want to work with. But sometimes, the match just isn't meant to be.

When this happens, I've got to let the pattern or the yarn sit for a bit until something else comes along that fits better with one or the other.

A recent case:

I had several skeins each of these two lovely colors:

My original plan was to make a bold-striped sweater or cardigan out of them, but I couldn't find a pattern that I liked, and I am not a good enough knitter to be able to make up a pattern on the fly - I need guidelines at least. It was driving me crazy because these colors go so well together. I finally gave up trying to find the perfect pattern and let the yarn languish in a box for a bit.

I have a closet in my office/writing/cello practice room, which now houses the yarn stash. A week or so after I moved in, I was putting the various bags of yarn up on the shelf in the closet, and I came across the bag that had this yarn in it. I remembered the sweater/cardigan that I wanted to do, but the image of it had gotten fuzzy. Then another thought occurred to me...

I recently got some red couches:

I love them, and they are exactly what I pictured for the living room. However, I'd started to wonder where I'd find blankets that I could lounge with on these couches that would go with the red in them, and then I came across the yarn I'd wanted to use for a sweater, and the little voice said, "make a blanket out of it, silly."

And so I am: