WIP: Nameless Cowl

After a few false starts, I finally cast on a design idea that has been kicking around in my head for a while. I just think the right yarn had to come into my life for it to happen. 

It's slow going. The right yarn just happened to come to me in the form of Reliquary II, a lace weight yarn by A Verb for Keeping Warm. It's 80% superfine merino and 20% silk and is just the perfect thing to knit this light, floaty, lace cowl. The color is out of my normal range but the Cochineal is the best kind of blush pink and I love the pairing of the color with the large, graphic lace panels. I'm excited to finish this project but I'm enjoying the knitting process so I'm taking my time with it.

FO: Fiar

Sometimes simple is best.

Pattern: Fiar by Irish Girlie Knits

Yarn: Black Trillium Fibre Arts Gradient Set in Flutter

Needles: US #6 (4.0 mm) Hiya Hiya Sharp Interchangeable

Mods: The pattern includes instructions for a 3-stripe or 5-stripe color sequence but the gradient set works with the pattern repeat of 20 rows. Each mini-skein of yarn yielded 20 rows of knitting so I just knit in pattern until I was about to run out of yarn and added the next color in at a garter section. I ended up running out of yarn right at the bind off so I pulled some white Dale of Norway Baby Ull out of my stash to finish off the bind off on the palest color section (you can hardly tell!). This pattern makes great social knitting as well as being a terrific sock yarn stashbuster. I used all 635 yards of my gradient set but if you have partial balls of sock yarn it would be a fantastic scrappy sock yarn project.

WIP: Fiar

I overpacked for my knitting retreat. The one project that I cast on during my knitting-filled weekend ended up being the only project I really wanted to work on.



This is Fiar by Irish Girlie Knits. It's a long cowl knit with sock yarn and I'm using my gradient set from Black Trillium Fibers. Each skein seems to eat up just about one repeat so it's coming along swimmingly and is really great for social knitting (and drinking) since every other row is stockinette. I'm using a US #6 needle since my #5 needle is otherwise occupied. My gradient set came with five mini skeins and I'm currently knitting the fourth of the set.

FO: Cupido Cowl

 Last month I went to a yarn garage sale where several women were de-stashing yarn and fabric. I picked up several great yarns (Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted!) including a ziploc bag with several skeins of Rowan Kid Classic. It just so happened that the previous evening I was looking up this particular yarn on Ravelry to knit the Cupido Cowl so I snapped up the bag of yarn for...ahem, two whole dollars, and brought it home.

Pattern: Cupido Cowl by Hiroko Fikatsu

Yarn: Rowan Kid Classic (approx. 1 1/2 balls)

Needles: US #8 Hiya Hiya Sharp Interchangeables

Mods: I cast on 132 stitches since I had extra yarn in my cast on tail (the pattern is a 4 stitch repeat) and knit until I was just about out of yarn. This yarn is one of the nicer mohair blends that I've knit with and it has good stitch definition while still looking fluffy  and soft.

Whatitsf**k Cowl

I seem to be going through a blue and green phase right now. Yellowy-greens and deep or bright blues are really grabbing my attention and saying, "Knit me! Knit me!" As a result of this color phase I grabbed two skeins out of my stash and went to work. I purchased said skeins at The Plucky Knitter during Sock Summit last year, can you believe that they were in her one-off basket?

Pattern: Improvised from my noggin
Yarn: The Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted in Faded Grandeur (yellow-green) and One Hit Wonder (blue)
Needle: US #8 Hiya Hiya Sharp
Notes: No mods this time since it all came out of my head. I provisionally cast on 80 stitches in Faded Grandeur and knit 4 row stripes alternating with the One Hit wonder until I ran out of the blue. I knit one more set of stripes in the yellowy-green color and then grafted the whole shebang together. This cowl is drapey and soft and has a wonderful heft to it since it's basically a knitted tube. No wrong side either! I really loved working with the Primo Worsted - it's a very round yarn with many plies and feels quite bouncy when knitting. I was surprised in a good way when very very little dye came out in the wash since blues have a way of bleeding like crazy when washed.