Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Baby it's cowl-ed outside

A few weeks ago I gave my cousin Judith and two of the aunts a little cashmere/merino neckwarmer each- one of those little short scarves that crosses over in the front and buttons.
Apparently I have started something, because Jude has picked up the sticks again and in the few spare moments when she's not frantically doing uni assignments or studying, she has been trawling through Ravelry looking at endless patterns for fingerless gloves, berets and above all cowls, and consulting by phone, email or Facebook as needed.
... all of which got me thinking that a few cowls wouldn't go astray up here either, especially with hair as short as mine currently is
so this lovely aran [ worsted ] weight merino from BWM had a quick trip through Dorothy the Dinosaur in a nice warm bath of Kelp and Tarragon dyes from Landscape
and came out looking like this
and I have to say I'm rather liking this new yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills . I don't really buy Luxury as a name for a good workhorse superwash merino no matter how soft it is [ Luxury to me speaks of superfine cashmere or silk ] but it really is quite soft, and so far it's not scratchy against the skin... and it's a very reasonable price too. So A++++ in my book.

Anyway ... cowls ... I have plenty of lovely cowl patterns that are in my to-do queue but I opted instead for just improvising with a lace pattern that appears in most stitch dictionaries. The Harmony Guide calls it Fishtail Lace

and as this one's not quite finished here's one I prepared on the weekend:
This is some 8ply [ sport ] that was in one of the stashes I've inherited in the last year. Moggy's Mum's maybe? Do you recognise it Jane ? - 't'was called Pronto and there were 6 x 25 gram balls of it. I used 3 and a smidge of the 4th. Obviously it's a finer yarn than the Aran Luxury so more stitches and repeats, and the grey one has a larger diameter for a more drapey cowl [ photo carefully cropped so that you can't see the remains of the black eye from 2 weeks ago and the aged, crepey jowls that, according to the aforementioned cousin Judith, are a family trait]

while the green one should stay nice and snug around my ears ... but apart from that small matter of gauge, weight and diameter they're the same.
Really.
They are!
A free 'pattern' could be forthcoming if some of you would like it

and that 'outside' I referred to in the title ? - Monday night was zero, last night was minus 1 and tonight should be 1 degree [ 3 .5 at the moment ]

9 comments:

blessedspeedy said...

yes free pattern would be lovely!! they look so warm and snuggly

Anonymous said...

Good for us with short hair.

Sue said...

The cowls look wonderful. I just finished knitting one up for my sister and really think I should knit one for myself now that it is so cold, (not as cold as where you are though). I love the pattern for the fishtail one, very pretty colors too.

Alwen said...

Oh, yeah, 0 C is definitely cowl weather! brrr!

Blessings each day said...

Free patterns are always awesome.

Did you dye that yarn yourself? It is such a beautiful color!

Love how you headed this post, too, by saying it cowled outside!

It hit 96 or better here today!

blessings and hugs,

marcy

Bernie said...

Susan, I so envy how you create such beautiful garmets. I am drawn to the necklines of your last few post. You could make a small fortune in Canada with your designs Susan.....I would be your first and steady customer.....Stay warm my friend......:-) Hugs

ozjane said...

Depends how soft that brown is. It may be what I have as a lovely lazy cardigan and still sometimes wear but mine has a more fuzzy worn look so tis hard to tell against pristine newness.
Could be Mother's.
More expensive would be mine.....what can I tell you...lol.
Mum wore jumpers and cardigans more for day to day wear..I either wore them for work....or if I was going to bother to knit it later years it had to be because the wool really appealed not because it was on special.
Need to become so selective about fabric.....although I have much improved.

catsmum said...

Jane it's actually a reasonably dark grey rather than brown - looks fairly true to colour on my monitor but that prooves nothing

Lynne said...

A very nice lace pattern it is too [I should know, I used it myself last week!!]