Knitting: Garter & Seed Stitch Cowl

A month ago, my MIL asked me to knit her a cowl.   There was no rush... just whenever I could find the time.  Then last week, one of my best gal pals invited me to a weekend up north to do nothing. And nothing is what we did. We slept. We ate. We watched TV.  I read a book.  I knitted a cowl!

There's a lot of joy in doing absolutely nothing.   It was such a nice and lazy weekend.  I brought up my needles and some yarn so I could knit a bit while we lounged.  My gal pal is great... she is used to me doing my crafty stuff and didn't mind that I totally geeked it out while we watched TV.

This was my knitting spot.

This was the view that constantly distracted me.

It took very little time to finish.

As for the details...  I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Wheat.  It took about 1.5 skeins using size 13 circular needles.

Here's me trying it on for size.  I just gave it to my MIL this past weekend but she probably won't be able to use it this year as it's gotten too warm for cowls.  However, she'll be ready for next winter.

While I was gone, the kids tried to enjoy whatever snow was left on the hills and in our backyard.

The snow is gone now and it's rainy... gotta love the promise of springtime!

Knitting: GAP-tastic Cowl

It's the GAP-tastic Cowl and it's all mine!!

When people ask me, "what have you been doing?", I think "what haven't I been doing?"  I have a lot of time consuming hobbies - sewing, baking, cooking, knitting, home improvement, gardening, photoshop design, this blog, etc..    I've always got multiple things on the go.   Those who know me, know that sewing is my #1 stressor and stress reliever.  But, lately I've been turning to knitting.  I made the Katy Cowl twice - one for my sister and one for a friend.  While I really liked both of those cowls, I also wanted to try knitting in the round.

I decided to knit a cozy cable cowl designed by Purl Soho.   So pretty.  But in hindsight, not very practical for me.  This cowl was my downfall.   But unfortunately I didn't know it until I was more than half way through.

As I continued to knit, I noticed that the cowl was getting very big.  I tried it on and this is what it looked like and I was only half way through the pattern.

I began to wonder if I should stop.  I even made hubby try it on (which he did - xoxo).  It was hard to wear under my coat, but also hard to wear above my coat since I have a hood.

I decided to undo the cowl after I had a nightmare about it.  #2 got his hands on my yarn and left me this yarn snowman.  That gave me the push I needed to find another pattern.

Enter the GAPtastic cowl.  It's one of the most popular cowl patterns on Ravelry and the designer made it available as a free download.  Thank you!

Again, I used the Wool-Ease in grey marble with size 13 needles.  I used 10 less stitches than the pattern called for as I wanted my cowl to be closer to my neck.  I cast on using the long tail method with a 150" tail (24" left over after cast-on).

It was easy doing the seed stitch and it wasn't boring at all!

I was done very quickly and bound off using a regular bind off.

I do regret not doing a super stretchy cast-on/off.

My join in the round needs work, but my bind off in the round was well hidden.  I followed this tutorial on how to neaten the last stitch.

So there you have it.  A cowl for me!

It was perfect for our day outdoors at Winterfest this weekend.  Check out this cool ice sculpture!

Feeling cozy,

Knitting: Cozy Winter Cowl 2

You can't just make one cozy cowl and not want to make another. When I knitted my sister's grey cowl, it was bigger than I thought it would be.  I decided to make another one for a friend who also lives downtown and walks everywhere.   I modified the Katy Cowl pattern by casting on 17 stitches instead of  22 stitches as recommended in the pattern.  I figured going down by 5 stitches would make the cowl closer to 8".  (I was right!!).

It was actually much nicer having only 17 stitches on the needles.  Again, I did a provisional-cast on.   I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in "Fisherman's Wharf".  It's such a nice creamy off-white colour.  An added perk of dropping 5 stitches is that I only used 2 skeins instead of 3.

It was late when I did my Kitchener stitches.   I couldn't find my needle so I wrapped the edge of the yarn with some tape and fished it through the live stitches.

Due to me sewing up the ends late at night, I didn't notice that the sides were a bit wonky.   In daylight, it was so obvious that I should have paid more attention to the sides. 

But handmade is still lovely, even with slight imperfections.

My friend said she loves the cowl (yay!).  You can see that this cowl is still bulky but not as big as the first one.

I think it's time for me to have my own, don't you think?   I'm sure it would keep me toasty for sledding at the pond.

Keep warm!

Cozy Winter Cowl

It's been a long time since I picked up knitting needles. The last thing I knit was a baby kimono for a girlfriend's baby shower.  That baby girl is now 8!

I probably wouldn't have picked up my knitting needles if not for the fact that we got some snow.   It's been weird seeing green grass for the last 3 months.  Of course the kids were so happy to see snow.  Even if it melted within 2 days (no no no!!), we were able to make a snowman and go sledding.

There's nothing like snowy weather to get me thinking of warm and woolly scarves.  So I decided to go to Michaels and pick up some yarn.  I bought some Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick (Grey Marble) after seeing the Katy Cowl pattern on Ravelry.

Since I can't control myself, I also bought these (and some more)

The cowl was very easy to knit.  However, in the 8 years that I haven't been knitting, there has been a lot of new stuff (for me) on youtube.  I learned how to do a provisional cast-on by iKnits.  Although the Katy Cowl pattern says to do a standard cast on, one Ravelry member said she did a provisional cast on.  I had no idea what that meant, but it sounded like she knew what she was talking about.  I googled it and realized again, how cool the internet is for crafters.   A provisional cast on allows you to have live stitches that you can knit from (or sew up) seamlessly.  The key word here is seamless! 

I used 10mm (size 15) needles as per the pattern but the yarn label suggested 9mm (size 13).   Since I usually ignore gauge (bad bad bad),  I was hoping it wouldn't be a problem since this was a cowl.

It was truly an easy knit but as I was measuring, I only measured for length.   It turns out that following the pattern without checking gauge made my cowl 1.5" wider.

I forgot to take pics of my grafting but trust me when I say, it looked fantastic!  Only I could tell where I joined the two ends thanks to this handy video:  how to do a Kitchener Stitch for garter stitches. 

Overall, I do still think the cowl turned out nicely.  It took 3 skeins to make and at 6oz/170g per skein, it's a bit heavy in my opinion.  Definitely too heavy for my little model.

I gave this one to my sister who walks everywhere because she lives downtown.  This is what it looked like on me.  Seems like there's so many ways this thing can wrap.

See what I mean?

Onto my next project!