FO: Bias Eyelet Cowl

I have a confession. I am not a very punctual person. I had extra time to get my Mom a Mother’s Day gift because she was out of town on vacation. I tried to paint a plate at Color Me Mine. But it turned out pretty crummy. I didn’t have a plan. So I was a couple weeks late getting my Mom anything! What a negligent daughter!

I did end up making her a cowl. A bubble-gum-like striped Noro cowl.

My Rav page here.

Pattern: Bias Eyelet Cowl by Grace Akhrem

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Lite and Rowan Milk Cotton DK.  Less than a ball each

Needles: US 4

Start Date: May 24, 2014

Finish Date: May 30, 2014

The cowl is knit on the bias, and fairly straightforward.  I knit straight for a little longer than the pattern called for.  Mostly because I wanted to see some more colors of the Noro and I thought it could be a little looser. 

Because you are carrying the two strands up the side of the work, one side started to look a little sloppy.  I tried not to worry about it, but it wasn’t good:

I ended up with plenty of the Silk Garden Lite left over, so I decided to do an applied I-cord edging along both sides.  This way I got to see some more of those colors!  And boy did it make it look more finished.  I picked up a stitch in every slip stitch on the edge, but every maybe four rows I added an extra row to my I-cord.  You have to find the right balance so that the edging is neither binding nor flared.

And if you are astute, you can see that I was doing this edging on a plane.  On the way to see my Mom!  Luckily she was out of town for the first two days I was home so that I had time to block it on the floor of my childhood bedroom.  Which, by the way, looks like a 16-year old girl still lives there. 

I probably should have gotten my Mom to model the cowl…

FO: Waneka Cowl

I am at a place in both of my knitting projects where everything is conspiring against me.  I broke my tiny crochet hook for beading and am stalled on that.  I can’t find a store that carries them.  I can’t find the right contrast yarn for a pair of mittens because the first one I had is slightly too thick so I knit half a mitten and found out they are too big.  And both of these projects are holiday knitting, so I can’t just put them aside to work on something for me.  I am trying to use the floss threader thing for my beading, but the rhythm just isn’t catching.    Gah!

But before this knitting slump of the last week, I did finish some small items.  Photos are a little patchy, but we’ll make do.

Rav page here

Pattern: Waneka by Annie Watts

Yarn: Knit Picks Chroma Worsted in Mix Tape, about .8 balls.

Needles: US 11

I spent about the whole time I knit this second guessing it.  The pattern is a series of I-cords knit together.  The stitches on the needles get insanely loose.  I was worried this was because I wasn’t pulling my I-cord tight enough.  But it turns out that that is how it is supposed to be, and the stacks of rings kind of flop over and cover the loose stitches between.  I wish I could have just trusted that during the knitting instead of feeling like I was spending time on something that was going to have to be ripped out. In this picture of the back, you can see some of those loose stitches on the bottom green section.

If I had to do it over, I might use a slightly smaller needle.  It also helps to use bamboo needles or something a little sticky instead of the Boye aluminum needles that I used.  But I wasn’t about to buy new needles.  I would also recommend using rubber bands or little needle stoppers when you switch to DPNs because those loose stitches love to just slip right off.

I did seven total rings, but I think I had enough yarn to do 8.  The height turned out well though.  I haven’t blocked the cowl in any of these pictures, so some of those blips of bleed-through color from decreases might recede.

I took these crummy self pictures and was so sure that I would get better pictures later.  But the pictures that I had someone take were even less flattering, even in natural light.

I want you to know that my hair is slight wet, not super greasy here…  The inside of the cowl has a pretty cool look with those elongated stitches.

I hope my knitting mojo turns itself around this week.  I can’t handle any more gift knitting setbacks!  This cowl was part of the Indie Designer Gift-a-long on Ravelry, but it is all mine!

 

FO: Cerato Cowl

Thank you for the opinions on my shawl.  I am just going to keep going for it!  At the end of it, if it is too crazy, I will think about overdyeing it or just give it away to someone who likes it.  But onward!

I did finish a quick project.  This was a test knit of a cowl off of the Free Pattern Testers group on Ravelry.

My Rav page here.

Pattern: Cerato Cowl by Nadja of Schneckenstrick.  The pattern will be released on May 1st I think.

Yarn: Knit Picks Chroma Worsted in Sunrise, 1 skein.

Needles: US 5 and US9

Start Date: April 16, 2013

Finish Date: April 19, 2013

Notes: I knit the pattern as written, except I ran out of yarn.  My row gauge must be different from the designer’s because my cowl was as tall as it was supposed to be, but I had to stop 7 rounds early.  This didn’t affect the patterning much.  I only have a couple feet of yarn left after that.

Nadja’s cowl was knit in Malabrigo Rios and looks super classy.  Mine is… less so.  I still like it, but it definitely feels like little girl colors.  Though, twice while working on it, on two separate days, people noticed that it matched what I was wearing.  I took a number of me-in-the-bathroom-mirror pictures.  I’ll edit this post in a bit and add one of those photos.  I will try to get some real pics soon though.

Also, the quilt is DONE.  Even the binding and an embroidered label.  I can not wait to get some good pictures of it to show you!!

FO: Trellis Infinity Scarf

While I was working on sweaters, I wanted a smaller project to work on.  I made this!:

Pattern: Trellis Scarf by Bethany Hick from Interweave Knits, Spring 2013

My Rav project here.

Yarn: Handspun Merino/Tencel, ranging from fingering to DK weight, about 300yds.

Needles: US4 and F hook

Start Date: February 28, 2013

Finish Date: March 20, 2013

Notes:  My yarn was pretty early handspun and was super uneven.  The stitch definition on the garter rib section is pretty bad.  Also, on the wrap sections.  I didn’t really have any other plans or ideas for the yarn, so just went for it.  The unevenness is less obvious in the mesh sections and the crochet flowers.

It had been a while since I’ve done any crocheting.  It was nice to revisit it.  I’ve been meaning to make a crochet garment for years…

The scarf does roll a bit in the ribbing sections.  But when you have it doubled around your neck it isn’t too obvious.  It’ll be a nice weight item for the coming months.

I need to come up with another accessory to knit while waiting for the Epic CAL/KAL to begin!

FO: Colvert Cowl

My Jazzercise mentor Linda is really awesome and has been super helpful to me this last year.  I decided to make her a cowl for Christmas.  I used one of my most recently purchased yarns for it.

Rav page here.

Pattern: Colvert by KatyTricot

Yarn: Twist Icicle, 95% baby llama, 5% stellina, about 200 yds of worsted

Needles: US 8 circulars

Start Date: December 21, 2012

Finish Date: December 25, 2012

Mods: none.  I bound off purlwise.  It wasn’t specified in the pattern.  I blocked the points of the cowl out, though they didn’t really stay that way.  The yarn is pretty loose and drapey.

These infinity cowls are nice because you can wear them like a long loop or doubled up.  Some versatility.  Here’s a close-up of the sparkles:

I hope that Linda will wear it.  I made her a shawl when I was first certified.  She seemed to really like it, but I’ve never seen her not in aerobics clothes.  Oh, that shawl was during my huge blog break, so here it is:

It is the Winterthaw pattern, and my rav page is here.

I am excited to do a photo wrap-up post of my holiday vacation.  Maybe once I get all my pictures uploaded.

 

FO: Orbs Cowl

Today is a 2-fer.  I get to show off my new finished cowl, and my new haircut!  I recently watched a previous season of Project Runway.  The one with Anya on it.  I became obsessed with her hair!  I kept talking and talking about how I wanted to shave the sides of my head, but would never do it.  I got up the nerve and went to Stag Hair Parlor on Melrose.  I ended up going with a sidecut, and just got one side shaved.  I can play it up if I want, and still cover it at other times.  Fortunately I don’t have a job that is strict about appearances.

Here is my “before” hair shot (self-portrait in bathroom mirror):

And here’s the after!:

I like it.  I’ve gotten mixed reviews at work.  Some people just aren’t mentioning it.  One coworker said that he hadn’t wanted to say anything because he, “wasn’t sure why.”.  Like maybe I was getting brain surgery or something.  He kept digging himself in deeper.  It was kind of amazing to watch.  🙂

Now on to the cowl:

Pattern: Orbs Cowl by Robin Ulrich in Knit Scene Accessories, 2012

Yarn: Noro Chirimen in color 6B, about 1.9 skeins

Start Date: July 15,2012

Finish Date: July 26, 2012

My Ravelry project here.

Mods: none.  The pattern calls for an aran weight yarn, and I substituted a DK weight instead.  But this Chirimen is so uneven, and my skeins were pretty thick.  There were some thinner sections, but much of it was aran weight.  I still used the larger needles and the same amount of stitches.  I thought about stopping shorter and making some mitts too, but this cowl really compresses down.  Non-compressed it’s tube top sized.  There were two knots total.  I was able to keep the color changes consistent though, by reordering the balls a little bit.  This is a pretty wild colored yarn, so I thought this simple pattern would work well with it.  I think it matches up okay, but it is kind of a riot of color.

My Grace Jones whimple photo.  I wouldn’t wear the cowl this way, but it is possible if it’s raining out!

Another gratuitous hair photo:

That’s it for today.  I’ve been having some drama with my Ravellenics project.  I’ll try to share my progress next week.  Any fun plans for the weekend?