Shawls

You know what, for how much I love shawls and how much shawl yarn I have planned out--I really don't have a lot of shawls on the needles or completed.

I had a goal this year to knit six shawls. SIX. mostly for myself. I wanted to finish my Shipwreck Shawl, re-knit Maluka and Summer Flies, finally start a color affection and an estonian lace shawl, and do something simple with some deep stash to send to some friends.

How is this one going? By the numbers, I've worked on five shawls. But as to specifics, well, it's been utter crap. I started estonian lace in January. I finished Shipwreck over the summer.  Everything else got ignored. I did knit myself a shawl that I hadn't planned to work on until next year (Quaker Ridge Shawlette) and finished it also over the summer, and I finished a stripey Zappow shawl of my own design to gift to a friend of mine. I also cast on a hitchhiker out of my own handspun, but I haven't touched it in a while (I don't know if a shawl is the right choice for this handspun).

Anyway,  it seems that I set my goals too high--6 really complex shawls did not get completed. But 1 complicated one got finished and 3 easy ones got worked on. So I think next year I need some easier plans. That's not super surprising--I am, as always, crazy busy.

Cowls

I really like cowls. They're like scarves that can't slip off or get lopsided or start to dangle too far over one shoulder and then stuck in the door of the subway without you noticing until you try to walk away and you get yanked back (this can still happen. it's just noticeable because the cowl stays on the front of you). A good cowl, in my opinion, can double as a hood-and-cowl if you've forgotten your hat. It also provides a layer of fabric right where I need it the most--over my chest and down to my belly. This is just about where all coats fail me (yes, I can get bigger coats. but then they're 4 feet too long. it's a matter of compromise), and I used to revert to wearing two shirts and a sweatshirt when I lived in Wisconsin, so the cold didn't bite as much (I would also wear a scarf. The scarf covers a similar vital area but has the aforementioned slippage problems). But that many layers is bulky and it makes the sleeves too tight... etc.

Anyway, I didn't really do cowls before I started knitting. I had (and still have) a half dozen scarves of various types that I employed. But now that I'm a knitter I've learned to love the cowl.

Despite this, I only have one cowl.

 That's my friend L modelling it, because I am large and round and it's hard to take pictures of yourself. It is the Honey Cowl from ravelry, knit in Madelinetosh DK yarn in the logwood colorway. The pattern is a free one, and relatively easy. I think it took 2.5 skeins of yarn to make it its current width, about a foot and then some, and the length...  which is... um... goes to about there on L and just past the boobs on me. It can be doubled up and it doesn't choke me. I think I knit the medium length that the pattern calls for.

I like purple, but I don't usually like light purple. Still, Madelinetosh does incredible colors and this has subtlety, tonality, depth, shades of dark and light... it's phenomenal stuff. Here's a close up that might do a better job of capturing it:

Anyway, this is my only cowl, and it gets a lot of wear once it gets cold here in the downsouth bits of the USA (it almost hit the 40s this weekend and for the first time I put on some hand knit socks and a sweater when I got up in the morning. downsouth sure is weird).

So, I've decided I need more cowls, since I wear this one so much. I've had this plan for over a year now, actually, and had some yarn balled up just waiting for the right time to cast on. In fact I balled it up back in December. Those of you who are astute will notice that it is November, so it's been nearly a year. I've got plans for doing some orange and blue colorwork that will look like a fishbowl when it's done (fun cowl, right? fishbowl? I love it), and some gorgeous stuff that stripes on itself in a Van Gogh colorway based on his Starry Night (which is so far my favorite... depth, texture, color, vibrancy.... unf) that I think I can make into a simple double knit tube. And when I was at the yarn store last month during their sale I picked up some Fibre Company Acadia to make myself another honey cowl (can't wait to knit and review this stuff). It's dark red, and I really need to get myself out of my color rut (I own way too much blue yarn. I don't look that good in blue, and I don't like blue knitted things that much--it's just that blue yarn calls to me. Like a siren.)

Casting on has been "on hold" for a while now while I finish up some gift knitting for a wedding and for the coming holidays. But I'm done with two of my three blankets and half the socks I need to knit, so I knew it would be soon that I would get to cast on, and I knew a cowl would be next.

As a matter of fact, it was. Did I do the double-knitted van-gogh inspired simple and perfect thing? No. Did I get creative and colorwork myself a fishbowl? Nope. Did I cast on the dark red Acadia, break my color rut, and do another Honey Cowl? No.

Instead I got cheap $4 yarn at Joann's with a friend and immediately cast on a garter stitch cowl that night.

weird impulse-buy yarn:

weird impulse-cast-on cowl:

Yep, it's almost two feet long in that photo and that's only one evening's worth of work. Yep, it's a boucle yarn in a gradient. Yes, it is once again blue and green, like so many other yarns I own. I am a fickle, fickle knitter.

but at least it's a cowl.