A tale of two cowls!

Merry Christmas Eve! It's a quiet one around here - the husband and I are sticking around here since air fare is redonkulous. A couple of weeks ago I made a few kinds of Christmas cookies. We ate all of those. So I whipped up a second batch of cookies yesterday morning - snickerdoodles and meringue surprises. This is the first time my meringue cookies approximated success!


And the surprise? Chocolate chips.


The subject of this post is not COOKIES! It's a tale of two cowls. For that is what I have knit lately. I needed something quick to knit up and I found the Birthday Cowl. Exactly the thing I needed. And the yarn? Some of my much hoarded Jade Sapphire Cashmere. The thing is like butter.


I increased a bit at one end to create a flare. It's soft and warm to wear, but isn't very fashion forward.



Cowl #2 has been in the works for a while. But it's been a slow knit. Churchmouse's Bias Loop Cowl. It's knit in lace weight yarn and is a simple simple pattern. But beautiful. I knit it a few needle sizes down (Size 9!) with Malabrigo lace. My neck is sensitive and can't take mohair, or even alpaca, but Malabrigo lace gives that sort of halo with amazing softness.


Instead of a kitchener graft, I did a three needle bind off. It's not invisible, but it saved me a lot of grief. And I have been and will be wearing this cowl all the time. I might be making these for gifts one year.


And those are the cowls. Both soft and warm, but one will be worn a lot more than the other.

A sad hat

There's been no Christmas knitting this year. No one is getting a knitted gift from me. Instead I've been huddled under my blanket, too cold to knit most nights. There has been a bit of knitting, here and there.

Like the sad hat. I call it sad because it was a failed experiment. I thought, I'll use this ball of Cascade 220 to make a cabled hat. And I won't follow a pattern! I'll just make it up as I go along! What can go wrong?

A lot.



I'm not sure the picture conveys the full sorrow of the hat. First off, it pulls in on an especially cable heavy row. Second, the lack of planning contributes to an unfortunately organic look. If the thing were dyed pink it would look like my brain was sitting out.



It fit, I give it that much. But that's all it gets. Except for frogged.



I frogged it this evening. No more sad hat.

FO: Haruni Shawl

Phew. Been awhile? I'm an on-again/off-again blogger. I've got no excuses. Okay, I've got a ton of excuses, but I'll not go into them.

During my hiatus there has been knitting. I have always loved the Haruni Shawl, so I finally knit one. I finished the main leaf portion during my August vacation, but stalled out a bit on the edging motif, mostly because I found my initial read through of the instructions confusing and put it aside to do something more straightforward. But it is done now.

I knit it from Naturally Dawn, a wool/silk blend which I quite like. In fact, I have enough of it in white for another project yet. Needles were Addi Turbo Lace, size 5. I followed the pattern except for the crocheted loops/bind off where I just did what I knew and not precisely what the pattern said.

Unblocked with hank of Lorna's Laces sock for scale:


Blocking with same scale (and cat):


And finished:


Details - I love the leafy edging:




And now I'm feeling a bit mad, so I thought maybe I would commit myself to a large scale lace piece with all the bits that drive me batty - patterned on both sides, knit on edging, needles below a size 5...


I haven't cast on. But I will.

No Money Miracle

That's the latest Knittyboard swap I'm a part of. And yesterday, I got a package in the mail! A shoebox full of goodness.


Oh, what can it be? The anticipation...


So much wonderful goodness!


From left to right: A hank of lovely Thirteen Mile yarn in one of my favorite colors, a tape measure, a pair of wrist warmers in a deliciously soft and squishy fabric, a ball of Jojoland Harmony in the perfect summery beach colorway, a cute little book, sock patterns, and a super project bag. And to whom do I owe my thanks? The fabulous Verablue. Thank you, Jeanne! I love it.

FO: Felted flower bowl

The final edition of a four day FO dump. Now I have only unfinished things to show you.

I'm currently involved in a swap, one in which you spend no money (except for postage) to spoil your partner. I dived into my stash and pulled out some yarn for gifting, but wanted to include something I made. As my sewing skillz are crap, I went to my strength. Knitting. I wanted to make something useful, but not a washcloth (especially as I have no cotton yarn), so I started searching Ravelry for a felted bowl that I liked.

And I found the felted flower bowl. It's cute, it's useful, it's great for odds and ends. And, I think, it makes a nice gift. This example is knit from bits of Lamb's Pride Bulky.


I seem to be in a bit of a felting phase. I love how quickly it uses up the odds and ends that had reached critical mass, combined with how quickly these things knit up. And the fact that stuff tends to look pretty awesome when it comes out of the washer - what's not to love?

FO: Ishbel.2

I finished my first Ishbel scarf at the end of March. Then I finished up spinning some merino/silk I had been working on. I ended up with about 350 yards of more or less lace-fingering weight yarn, with some areas so thin as to be threadlike and a couple of noticeably thicker slubs. It was enough for a project. And, while I usually don't like to knit the same pattern twice, Ishbel seemed just right. So I started knitting it. Then I stopped for a long time. But now it is finished.


The fiber spun up into a lovely mostly-blue-but-with-shades-of-greens-and-purples that I feel is quite nice. Because of the thinness of certain areas, I did not block as aggressively as I am wont to for fear of breakage. It seems to have come out intact.


I feel especially proud of this because I did take it from fiber to finished. It's my first project from my own handspun. Yay!

FO: Clapotis for me

Clapotis, possibly the most popular project evar. And also one of the best for variegated yarn. So I splurged, bought some variegated Malabrigo (in Plena) and made one.

I knit it with one less increase section, and used very nearly all my yarn. The thing turned out huge. The blocking pick a few posts down is the best for scale. It's probably a skosh over 6 feet long. There are no modeled photos of this because it was 100 degrees out when I took it and we do not have AC. Not gonna wrap myself in merino under those circumstances. The chair, however, I have no pity on.


I was a little surprised how dominant the golds are. But its really the outlier color, so I suppose it makes sense.


I am not normally a big fan of variegation at this scale, but there are a handful of techniques that I believe it's appropriate for. Mostly this and certain types of modular knitting. Also, it's going to be sooo soft and luxurious and warm. This winter. Not now. Too hot hot hot.