Saturday, April 19, 2014

Barber Pole Cowl


A little knitting. I am working on a project called Barber Pole Cowl and am enjoying the simplicity of it. I can pick it up and put it down easily when I need to. Lots of other things have me dividing my attention. 

Here's Thing #1


Sweet Sandy

Here's Thing #2


My big boy Brute. 

Things # 4, 5, 6, 7... You get the idea:


Sometimes the doggies nap.  One thing you can count on for sure is these doggies are rarely apart. 












Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Steel Cut Oats Chunky Cowl: Take 1


 
I saw a chunky grey cowl on Facebook the other day and decided I should make it.  I "shared" the photo so I could go back and find the pattern link, and right away, a gal at work (Mrs. R) said, "oh, I like that!"
 
Here's the pattern link for the cowl called Steel Grey Chunky Circular Scarf.
 
I set out to make this on Thursday when I went to knit at the knit shop with the girls. I brought 4 skeins of Berroco Weekend, which is a really light worsted weight yarn.  The pattern calls for knitting with 5 strands of DK weight yarn at one time.  I settled on 4 strands of my light worsted weight yarn.  Since my yarn is the color of oatmeal, I decided to call my project Steel Cut Oats Chunky Cowl, because I am silly like that.
 

 
This is one of those projects where you really can't judge the size of the item until you cast it off and try it on... at least that's the way things work for me.  I noticed when I was knitting the stockinet portion that my piece did not seem to be as tall as it should be, so I added a few extra rows.   When I finally cast off and tried the cowl on, I discovered it was not long enough.  In the pattern, it's pictured worn around the neck doubled up in a "figure 8". My cowl was like a choker!
 
 
It wasn't until I was adding my project notes to Ravelry and looking at other completed projects that I realized where I went wrong. Pattern calls for 15 mm needles (US Size 19) but I used smaller US Size 15 needles. Whoops.
 
I brought the cowl to the gal at work (Mrs. R) and she tried it on. She agreed it would look okay as a long circular scarf but just too short to wear it doubled up.  We counted the columns of stockinet stitches and decided, if I cast on an additional 20 to 25 stitches initially, the scarf would be great doubled up around the neck.
 
 
I have a ton of this yarn, so I plan to cast on again with additional stitches and we'll see how that works.  Whatever the case may be, this was a fun and very quick knit!