holy cowls!

I must have an instinct, much like the geese, to tell me that winter is on its way, because I have been knitting up a storm lately.  Mostly big, chunky, squishy cowls...so cozy!  

This one for me:

This one (and matching hat) will be a Christmas gift- made with the wool from Purl Soho.

This one was made for my fabulous friend Michelle (IG: ilikeorangetoo), which I gifted to her while in Nashville.

Originally the cream cowl was a gift for Angela (Cut to Pieces), but little did I know that she is allergic to wool, and it instantly made her itchy!  So I kept it (big hardship) and knit her up a new one quickly during our Sew South weekend out of a super soft alpaca yarn that she had bought herself.  Doesn't she look adorable in it?

All of the above cowls were made with the same simple pattern, bulky yarns held single and worsted yarns held double, doing a simple k3 p3, in a multiple of 6 stitches plus or minus one stitch to allow the pattern to spiral.  For most of these I cast on about 79 stitches to wrap double around the neck comfortably, and they each took 2 skeins.

I also made another very cool cowl/sling type thing, finished also while at Sew South for my bestie Samantha (IG: samsews).  It was a pattern (Panem cowl on Ravelry) based off this super cool knit worn by "Katniss" in the latest Hunger Games movie.

I love how this turned out, and it is totally the funky style that suits Sam, don't you think??  I have more yarn to make one for me, someday.

More finishes on the way!

pretty things.

Oh, how I love pretty things!  Here are some of my favourites.

This lovely package that arrived over Christmas from the amazing Svetlana of S.O.T.A.K. Handmade.  These hexies are to die for!!  I am trying to figure out how to use them best, and am thinking a mini quilt may be in order. Thank you, Svetlana!

This incredible Christmas/birthday bundle from my bestie Samantha in Toronto makes me weep with joy.  LIBERTY fabric, a Liberty book, personalized stationary, the best tea mug ever which I use daily, and a hand knit cowl!  Spoiled.

Pretty yarns, everywhere I look.  I seem to have a bit of knitting ADD and have multiple projects on the go.  Since I have a hard time finding a chunk of time to pull out my sewing machine lately,  I have turned to knitting as my primary happy creative outlet.  I love that I can pick it up easily for a few minutes here and there, and its portability for this mom-on-the-go is THE BEST.

I finished up my Coolbreeze sweater (photos to follow, someday) that I have been working on forever, and have promptly started a new pullover with some gorgeous Tanis Fiber Arts yarn in shadow (above right).  Lord knows we have had more than our fair share of wool sweater weather here lately!

(See?  Portable.  Here I am knitting while at a dental conference.  Made it MUCH more interesting!)

And I did finish up a Northern Loop cowl using TFA iris yarn recently which I absolutely LOVE.  So cozy.  More details on my Ravelry page here.

It has been a popular companion for me these past couple weeks.  Cheers!

plucky

Have you ever heard of The Plucky Knitter and her yarn?  I hadn't either, but it kept popping up all over, with rave reviews.  But here is the thing.  You can't just BUY it.  No. You have to be on the email list to be notified of its release, then sit at your computer at that exact moment and hit refresh a bunch of times to buy it up before it's gone.  It is seriously a frenzy.  It seems Plucky is the rock star of yarn.

Naturally, I had to have some to see what all of the fuss is about.

I ordered a couple sample skeins in different weights, then enough in her pretty bohemian blue for a sweater for me....am thinking this one here.

I wanted to try it out right away.  So I grabbed a skein of the bulky weight in sagebush, a pretty grey-green, and cast on the dropped stitch cowl pattern (love my pouch form Ali!!).

I knit like a maniac in ocd-worthy fashion, and finished this cowl the next day.  And I have to say....this Plucky is good stuff!

This one will be heading south to my lovely friend Kelly, who I had the fun of hanging with in Atlanta, and has made me a gorgeous AMH velveteen and voile cowl in return!  Life is good :)

holy cowl!

I would like to take a moment to direct you all to my blog title...yes, a bit of OCD over here.

Last Christmas, it was all about the knit hats.  This year, I may have gone a little Cowl Crazy.

First of all, I never did show you the finished cowls that I made as gifts for Felicity and Krista.  I wanted to give them a little something when I met them in the flesh at retreat.

As soon as I saw this yarn, Malabrigo Rios in Solis, I knew it was made for Felicity.  She is all about the blues and greens, and she was working on this adorable mini quilt while I was stitching this up, so I named it the Posseidon Cowl ;)  I used the free Northern Loop pattern from Ravelry, and she looked so gosh darn adorable in it!

For Krista, I went with warm tones, the same Malabrigo Rios but in Archangel.  I used the (also free) Elis pattern on Ravelry, which uses a cool Indian Cross Stitch that was a ton of fun to knit up.  Loved how it looked on her as well!

Then I made another modified Elis using some Tanis Fiber Arts yarn for my friend Samantha.  Shipped it off to her in Toronto!

Then there was the Honey Cowl for Svetlana...

...and the Herringbone Cowl for me.

Next I decided to make a Dropped Stitch cowl using a skein of Malabrigo Rasta that I had been hording for awhile.  This was meant for a gift but I loved it too hard....it's for me.  I am not going to lie to you, it makes me look HOT.

This was a great, quick knit, so I decided to make a few more as gifts using my stash of Wool Ease Thick and Quick, in navy, pumpkin and fisherman.  Edward was a good sport and is modeling them for me.

If he looks a little sour, it is because his feelings are hurt as Katie B said she DOESN'T LIKE TWILIGHT.  What the fudge?  Katie, please reconsider........he's not going to give up on you....for eternity.

And that concludes my OCD venture into the world of cowls.  For now!

Awesome swaps, take 1

Last week was a great mail week- I received packages from two fantastic private swaps with friends!  First up was from my friend Svetlana.  She makes the most amazing pillows, which is something always on my to-do list but never seems to make it to the top.  So I swindled her into making one for my offering up some knitting in return.  I am sneaky like that :)

I have this huge chocolate brown leather sectional that has been in want of pillows for ages, but I wasn't sure how to start.  I told Svetlana some of my favorite colors and she came up with the perfect pillow.  Or, should I say PILLOWS!  That's right, she sent not one, but TWO beautiful pillows my way!

They look just stunning together on my couch :)

And they have been very well received by my family :) Last But Not Least especially loved the fabric on the back of the smaller pillow with the texty penguins!

Svetlana's work is amazing, her points are all perfectly matched, her quilting straight as an arrow!  She is really a very talented lady, and wonderful person, to boot.  As you may recall, we had the chance to meet in person this spring when I went to Naperville for a fundraiser walk for SCAD, the type of heart attack my best friend suffered in the fall of 2011.  Svetlana brought her entire family along for the walk in support.  How amazing is that?  I loved walking and chatting with her, and hope to meet up with her again next fall when I plan to return to walk again :)

In exchange for these amazing goodies, I got to work and knit her up a soft and cozy cowl, to help ward off the chill of the Illinois winters.  I used the popular honey cowl pattern from Madelinetosh and used one of my favorite wools, Tanis Fiber Arts green label in charcoal.

It can be worn long...

...or wrapped twice.

(man, am I ever a dorky model!)

I sent it off along with a few odds and ends, a journal, some Canadian chocolate, things like that.  The cowl was a fun knit, and I am glad to say the package has been received and being enjoyed :)

Thanks, Svetlana, for a great swap!!

look who came to visit!

Thursday night, to my surprise and delight, I had a special visitor.  Edward!  And I thought I would have to wait until Friday night at the movie theatre to see him again!

We had a nice chat about the world, the quilts he had seen in him many years on earth, and a bit about that Trampire Kristen Stewart.   Then he set about to make me dinner.  He made a lovely pasta with garlic sauce.  Garlic and vampires, you say?  Don't worry, I brushed my teeth thoroughly before we made out.

Then he got right to work doing the dishes.  "Let me help," I exclaimed, but he insisted I sit and relax.  "You give me everything just by breathing," he said.  So I put my feet up and let him go about his work.

After dinner, it was the Twilight hour, so we took a romantic walk in the park.  I know, as a vampire, he doesn't get cold, but I still offered him my latest cowl, the Big Herringbone Cowl by Purl Bee, knit in Madelinetosh chunky wool in Cove.  He loved the intricate herringbone pattern and said the soft texture of the wool was even soft to his stony skin.

All too soon he had to go.  But luckily, I had a date already planned with him for Friday night.  It is a tradition for the girls at work to go and see each instalment of the Twilight movie on opening night. It did not disappoint!  Loved it, though sad for it coming to an end.

On the way home, I spied someone peering at me through the window of my office.....

(Gotta love the sense of humor of my staff :)

Are you a Twihard?  Did you see the movie??  What did you think?  Discuss.

p.s.  as someone will invariably ask....yes, I do own a life-sized cardboard Edward.  I bought it in a small town in Minnesota several years ago, and it was worth every penny.  It led to an interesting encounter with the Canada/USA border control on our return....

"What did you buy from the USA to bring back into Canada?"  
" A 2-4 of beer, and a life sized Edward."  
"A whaaat?"  
They then proceeded to search our vehicle.  :P

Envy chevron cowl

Well, fourth time is a charm, and my cowl is complete! Aren't you green with envy?

I am really glad I took the time to re-knit this. Now, I love everything about it. I love the color- not normally one I gravitate to, but it is so bright and cheerful and makes me believe that spring is really just around the corner! The wool is so very soft. I love the pattern and the weight of it. The lacework makes it airy, and it is light around my neck, not too hot. I modified the pattern so the lacework changes direction, making a chevron/zig zag pattern. I love how it turned out.


I like that I can wear it long or short (though I prefer the short double wrapped version).


Mostly, I love that it is DONE. And not without further drama.....I added stitches as the last one was too short and strangling me a bit, and then this time ended up running out of yarn! Had to do some fancy pants stuff to pull it off....a couple less finishing rows on one end, and then I got to the last TWENTY stitches and ran out...so I used the yarn from the tiny tail from my starting point and k2tog to get this puppy done. With, literally, an INCH of yarn left!! So my finishing is a bit funny looking, but no worries, I keep that little bit hidden at the back ;)


I have been wearing this around non-stop the last few days :) My new favorite accessory!

(p.s. if you are wanting more details, you can find them on my Ravelry page, here)

Epic failure(s)

So let me let you in an a little fact. When I knit something, I knit it 3 times. I am not saying I knit 3 ITEMS......nope, generally I screw up and unravel until I have knit the damn thing 3 times over!

On the bright side.....I am grateful that yarn can be unraveled; fabric can not be "uncut"! So at least when I have one of my epic knitting failures, I CAN start all over again!

Case in point: my Golden Wheat Cardigan. I started it in November. Consulted a "real" knitter for advice (thanks, Linda). Knit my swatch. Got going....realized I did it backwards. Unravel. Knit again. A couple balls of yarn in, I thought, "this looks small....." Realized I had restarted on the WRONG sized needles- SIZE 6 instead of 6mm (size 10!)! Grrr....Unraveled again. Now am on my way (I hope??). Hope to finish it to enjoy this spring!


Another example: I was to make a cowl on the airplane to/from Disney. Did the knit/unravel dance 4 times and then finally finished it....but it seems a bit small, even though I had made it longer than the pattern. It is wearable, but I know it will drive me nuts and I love the yarn and pattern too much to waste it....so this one will be "frogged" and restarted yet again! But I LOVE the yarn feel and color, and the lacy pattern is nice and light weight so it will be the perfect accessory to enjoy from winter right into spring. Here is a sneak peak (from before I unraveled it!):


So, there you have it, the secret to my "success"! But, even with all the frustration, I still love knitting. What can I say? A glutton for punishment I guess!

And, much like quilting, one of my favorite parts of knitting is finding fabulous new yarn. Here is the next delicious pile I plan to mess up with! Tanis Fiber Arts Green label in Shadow. My "birthday" yarn ;) Gonna knit me up a sweater....maybe in time for NEXT year's birthday!?!

I am salivating over the hand-dyed greys with the hints of blue......