fo: holding hands, feeding ducks cowl

My entire Halloween weekend was, unfortunately, pretty unremarkable. I had other things that needed to get prioritized over dressing up and acting like an idiot (which is a shame, because that is my favourite). I did, however, cast on and cast off for something new.

IT’S AN UGLY TUBE!

Just kidding. Okay, well – it is a tube. But it’s not anywhere near as boring as it looks in that picture. If you arrange it right, it can look like this:

Or like this.

Which I think is much, much nicer. This cowl is based on the stitch pattern from the Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks scarf, one of those patterns that I’ve always loved but never found time to knit. It’s also dead easy to turn into a cowl, and leaves a fabric that’s really springy and dense, but doesn’t curl (even though it looks very stockinette-y).

Pattern: Cowl modified from Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks
Yarn: Nearly a skein of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted, in Pewter.
Needles: 5.5mm

Directions: The pattern calls for a multiple of 4 sts plus one, so I cast on 41 stitches using the long-tail cast-on and leaving a VERY long tail, on purpose. This made my scarf about 8″ wide, unblocked.

Then I worked in the star stitch pattern established in HH,FD for 25 inches, give or take. I was going for a big, floppy cowl, not a nice, tight neckwarmer. If you wanted to make one of those, though, you could just knit for fewer inches.

Then, I stopped (ending on a knit row), but did not bind off – I left my work on a holder. Using the tail from my cast on, I picked up 41 sitches at the cast-on edge of my work, and then I believe I had to knit a row so that the working yarn was on the same side of the work when I held them both together. Finally, using the tail from my cast-on (but you could also break the working yarn if your tail wasn’t long enough) I grafted the two ends together.

This left me with a big, floppy tube. I blocked it out a little, so that the finished dimensions ended up being closer to 9 inches wide and 23 inches long (11.5 inches with the ends grafted together). It’s so, so squishy, and perfect for throwing on when it’s chilly out, but I don’t want to carry a scarf around indoors all day.

hands up, they're playing my song

sweaterfolded, originally uploaded by pirateygoodness.

When I finished the body of my Garter Yoke Cardi, back in the middle of June, I knew that I wanted to set it aside for a while.

(Originally, this was because I thought I’d need my 4mm circular needle for other projects – namely, both my Ishbels and the Featherweight Cardigan. Since sitting down and organizing my circs, I’ve discovered that I actually have seven 4mm circular needles, in a shockingly wide range of sizes and materials. Oops.)

Uh, I don’t know if you know this, but worsted weight yarn on 4mm needles goes super, super fast. I am pretty sure I did not think this was the case when I first started knitting several years ago, but after working on fairly fiddly, small-gauge projects for the past few months, this was like heaven. Instant-gratification heaven. I can’t believe how little time it took for me to take this sweater from just one more unfinished project to very nearly done.

Song of the Entry: Miley Cyrus – Party in the USA (Listen)

i'm the first kid to write

IMG_7909, originally uploaded by pirateygoodness.

It’s not much, but it’s a start.

At some point I want to blog about all of the changes I’m making to Owls, because there are a lot, but for now I’m just too excited about omgomgomg MY SWEATER to write up a post like that. The first bit of the hem (garter stitch, instead of ribbed), on top of my crazy-over-the-top pattern notes.

I feel like I should also mention just how much I love this yarn. Because really, it’s effing beautiful. Look at it! It’s grey, but it’s got subtle green tones and subtle violet tones, and it’s so soft I could cheerfully roll around in it like Scrooge McDuck. Definitely an excellent irresponsible-yarn-purchasing decision.

Song of the Entry: Fall Out Boy – I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me (Listen)