Mere’s Cowl: A Do-Over

Ok…..designing something fromscratch is both fun and aggravating. Mere’s cowl is kicking my knitting butt. I literally have started it three different times….and frogged each version.

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Guess the fourth time is the charm? (Aided by a large glass of wine last night….) I’m rocking and rolling now, hopefully have a FO soon!!

The snow hasn’t started, The Blizzard of Oz, part II is headed our way. I hope I can make it to and from work today. Pray or cross your fingers for me. Ill try to update on the snow later today, providing I survive and we have power…..

Happy Knitting!

A Present for Mere

A very dear friend recently asked for a soft lightweight cowl in red. So I pursued Ravelry and just didn’t find anything worthy of Mere. She has gorgeous pale skin with dark cocoa colored hair.

Mere and I share a love of wine, so I pulled two skeins of Lion Brand Natures Choice Organic Cotton in variegated reds and browns. The reds remind me of the different colors of red wine and the browns will pop against her hair.

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And away I went! I cast on about 210 sts and I plan on working back and forth between lace sections and stockinette sections. If this design works out I hope to launch this as a free design here on my blog and on Ravelry.

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This is my purse/public knitting project, so I hope it will go quickly! I can’t wait to see Mere wearing it. She is gorgeous in anything but I love that she adores my hand knits!

Happy Knitting!

FO Friday: Holy Cowl!

To justify my falling off the yarn wagon this week, I decided to whip a quick FO using the new yarn! I chose on Holy Cowl! by Hilary Hunt!

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I used some of my Natures Choice Organic Cotton in chocolate. The yarn is held double so you need two skeins. I moved down to size 11 needles and CO 74 sts instead of 62 to account for sizing with smaller needles. Rav notes here.

I tried using the 13s the pattern recommended, I just had trouble with the k3tog. I probably should have loosened my tension and stuck with 13s, but I’m the master of my own knitting and I can do what I like!

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The pattern makes a nice open lace like design. I royally got off pattern in the middle somehow and didn’t notice until I was almost done. Again I am the master of my own knitting and decided that I had not in fact made a mistake….just improvised a new design detail! The yarn is so dark you really can’t tell without REALLY looking hard anyway.

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Big needles and bulky yarn made this fly by! The cotton is deliciously soft and definitely my favorite. I have some berry/red in my stash that is definitely going to knit up into one of these for my dear friend in Portland who is having a rough go and needs a little hand knit cheer!

Happy Knitting!

A Wonky Cowl

I snagged a great skein of Berroco Borealis at my LYS a few years ago….but only one skein. I can’t remember why I only bought one and I have had a terrible time deciding what to do with this 108 yds of lovely yarn. It’s a great mix of blues and greens and has great “squishy ness”.

I searched Ravelry and finally found something that tripped my trigger so to speak! I found Wonky by Brittany Wilson, a creative one skein cowl. It is knit in the round and the decreases and increases cause it to come out in a zig zag shape….or wonky!

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It has stockinette sections and checkerboard sections that sort of lean. Best part is that this pattern was free! This was a well written pattern but stupid me misread it the first go round. I had it 2/3 done and had to frog it completely after I discovered my error. I blame the TV show I was watching, lol. I persevered and re-knit. I even added one extra pattern repeat to make it a bit taller for me. Even with re-knitting it, I knit this item in one evening and had time to wash and block it.

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It looks really nice against my black wool coat. The yarn isn’t the softest but its very warm! It felt good during our trip to the dog park today as its 30 degrees here!

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Happy Knitting!