Monday 5 November 2012

Just Winging It

In a dramatic change of events from my last post,  this is what my backyard looks like today...


Most of the snow is gone, the leaves are falling fast, and it is well above freezing.  Yay!  It seemed like a good time to snap a few photos of my most recent finished project. 

My friend dkzach recently knitted a super fun scrappy-stripey cowl using mini-skeins and odds and ends of hand-dyed fingering weight yarn. After trying in vain to come up with a plan to "acquire" her cowl for myself, I decided it would be easier to simply knit my own using my (growing) scrappy mini collection. 

 

I cast on a whole bunch of stitches using the stretchy Cable Cast On (I have no clue how many) and 5.0 mm circular needles, and joined to knit in the round. I noticed after more than a dozen rows that I had committed the biggest Knitting-in-the-Round-Sin.....I had twisted my stitches! At that point, I was too lazy to rip it out and start over, we're talking about a lot of stitches here! I figured I'd just call it a "Design Feature" and work with it. I was also looking for a way to add some textural interest to the stripes as simply as possible. I worked garter ridges randomly on some of the first rows after joining a new colour. I (cleverly, shamelessly copying dkzach) wove in ends as I went. After I cast off, I decided to make my cowl reversible by stitching the cast of and bound off edges together with scrap yarn and a blanket stitch.

I am thrilled with the result, and it just figures. It's now too warm to wear a wool cowl.