I hate when this happens … a non-knitter hands you a single, lumpy-bumpy ball of slubby cotton yarn and gushes, “Make me something fancy!”

• Lace would kill your fingers
• Drop stitches would be impossible
• Textures just don’t show up

What can you do?

Here’s one solution: a long ruffled scarf whose rows get progressively shorter. You can use up the whole ball without worrying whether you’ll run out before you bind off --- and the bind-off is relatively few stitches.