FO Friday #16: A Tale of Three Cowls

Friends, it is very rare for me to knit the same exact pattern more than once. It is even more rare for me to knit two items from the same pattern within a week of each other. This rarest of patterns is Zuzu's Petals by Carina Spencer. It is a clever little shawl-shaped-cowl accessory that is simultaneously genius and simple in design and engaging and quick to knit. I think cowls in general make wonderful gifts, they serve the same function as scarves more efficiently (as far as knitting time goes) and they're rare enough in stores to make them uniquely knitterly and therefore more awesome. Anywho, I've made three of these cowls, one for myself last summer and two in the last couple of weeks for gifts.

#1 and #2 are the new ones (size large), #3 is my old one (size small).

Cowl #1 is the large size knit with a skein of my handspun merino/tencel blend yarn. This yarn was the thickest of the three which made this cowl the largest and bulkiest to wear. I'm particularly excited about the way the colors in this cowl worked out. When I spun the yarn, I split the braid in two and and ended up with two little skeins that gradually transitioned from gold through green to a darker brown. When I knit the cowl, I started the first skein with gold and then knit from the opposite end of the second skein so it would transition from brown to gold again.

Cowl #1 - handspun

Cowl #2 is also the large size, knit with the sadly discontinued SG Zaftig Bugga, a worsted weight merino/cashmere/nylon blend. Knitting this yarn was supremely satisfying, the stitches were plump and even and blocked cleanly while the fabric remained soft and supple. Since the yarn is a bit thinner than my handspun and contains a good deal of cashmere which usually drapes, the cowl is a bit smaller/less bulky-feeling when worn than Cowl #1, despite being the same size.

Cowl #2 - SG Zaftig Bugga, colorway Starry Night Cracker

Cowl #3 is the small size, knit with Blue Moon Fiber Arts Marine Silk Worsted, a silk, Merino, Seacell blend which is extra drapey (and wonderful). That drape contributes to why this cowl is my go-to accessory indoors because my neck stays warm without a lot of bulk. I barely even notice it's there when I wear it but it warms me right up, I wore it constantly this winter (which is why it is less crisply pointed than the first two freshly-blocked cowls). The small size is intended to be knit with sport weight yarn but I used the same needles with thicker yarn to compensate for the drape of all that silk and I love the result.

Cowls 1, 2, and 3.

The three cowls pictured side-by-side provides a good representation of their differences. The main difference in the pattern is that you knit the plain stockinette portion to a larger stitch count before beginning the lace and you knit an additional pattern repeat of the lace for the small size. I knit cowls 1 and 2 on size 9 needles and cowl 3 on size 6 needles. The large pattern size produced cowls that were a bit more funnel-shaped and the small size produced a more cylindrical cowl. You can see in 1 & 2 that the lace portion flares out more at the bottom and narrows towards the top while in cowl 3 the width is more equal throughout. If you refer back to the first picture, this affects the way the cowl sits around the neck. I think I prefer the shape of the small sized cowl, which could probably be achieved with the large size as well if you changed the rate of increase so that the stockinette portion became wider faster (more crescent-shaped, less triangle-shaped) which would decrease the height of the plain stockinette portion. I think the large size as written is probably more effective as an outerwear accessory than the small since it hugs the neck more tightly and would keep one warmer, but for comfort and around-the-house wear I really like Cowl #3. If you want more details on size/gauge/etc. because you're a total knit nerd like me, you can check them out for Cowl 1, Cowl 2, and Cowl 3 on their respective Ravelry pages.

Speaking of knit nerds, today is the last day to enter the contest on Vicki's blog interview of me, so don't forget to comment over there for the chance to win one of my patterns!

WIPWed #24: Knitting Spring

When looking at my works-in-progress together, it is clear that I am trying to knit all of the colors of spring at once. And you know what? That makes me extraordinarily happy. Here's what I've been working on lately:

Tiny Turn-A-Square:

The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga, colorways Box Jellyfish and Common Emerald Moth

For this WIP, I'm taking Jared Flood's free Turn A Square pattern and babysizing it for my future nephew. I'm knitting it with sport weight yarn on size 4 needles (instead of worsted on 7's) and cast on 80 sts. I'm doing just one bold stripe near the brim, then will do a series of thin stripes through the decreases. I've stashed a bunch of Bugga but I usually conserve it for the super special projects that I sometimes forget how wonderful it is. It's knitting up delightfully at this gauge (about 6 sts/inch). This little beanie should be done in no time and I'll probably make some matching booties as well.

 Budding Lintilla:

BMFA Socks That Rock Mediumweight, colorway Budding Twig

To say I am utterly charmed and delighted by this WIP is an understatement. I really love this thing. I think of myself as Not A Pink Person but there's something about the interplay between it and the bright springy greens and shots of coral in this yarn that I am totally into, and I love the way the short rows in the Lintilla shawlette pattern affect the stripes. It's an addicting little knit, for sure.

Spring-y Socks:

Play At Life Revelous Sockie Maki

This WIP is probably the springiest one yet. I adore the gradient yarn so very much and I just had to pick a delicate, lacy sock pattern to go with it. I chose Hunter Hammersen's Crocus Vernus socks, from her first Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet book. I already pre-ordered the second one, because really admire her design sense.

Copyright Hunter Hammersen

Knit up in my yarn, the socks will start green at the cuff and work their way through pale lilac to a deep purple at the toe. I can see it in my mind already and it's going to be awesome, don't you think?

Starry Petals:

The Sanguine Gryphon Zaftig Bugga, colorway Starry Night Cracker

Finally, this WIP is making me super duper sad that Zaftig Bugga (a hefty, worsted weight version of Bugga) has been discontinued because it is fabulous. Look at how plump, even, and gorgeous those stitches are! It's making such a wonderful fabric. This is going to be a Zuzu's Petals cowl by Carina Spencer. This is one of those rare patterns that I love so much I'm willing to knit it multiple times and I think it makes really great gifts. I actually finished another so quickly last week that it went from WIP to FO without ever seeing the blog. It's blocking now and I will show it off on Friday, but just as a little teaser, I knit it out of this lovely earth-toned handspun:

3-ply worsted weight superwash Merino/Tencel blend

... which did fantastic things in the pattern. Can't wait to show you! I think that's all I've been actively knitting in the last couple of weeks. Lots of new projects, not doing so well with finishing up ancient WIPs, but I'm sure I'll get to them.. someday. :)

FO Friday #12: Tumultuous

Happy Friday! I've finished a gift, but my feelings are mixed.

The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga, colorway Fierce Snake

This is the Tumult cowl from Hunter Hammersen's awesome little Rabble Rousers collection of accessories. The stitch pattern was pretty fun and simple to work, though I'm not sad to see the last of twisted stitches for a little while. I made it to match my mom's cuffs. I think they make a pretty little set. However, I'm not thrilled with the fit of the cowl.

Too tall... too squished... folded over sorta works?

Hunter mentioned that the stitch pattern stretched a lot after blocking... and my swatch did, but the cowl... not so much. The thing about twisted stitches is when you put a lot together like that, they really do tighten things up and the fabric does some funny things. I wanted the lovely draped styling of the cowl in the pattern photo:

Copyright Hunter Hammersen

But that didn't happen. For one, I had to go hunting to see what size the sample was... which I hate. It's one of my pattern pet peeves. I understand wanting flexibility in patterns and it's great to encourage knitters to think for themselves, but I like some baseline information. What size is pictured and also how many repeats did you knit to get that height? Yes, swatches and math will let you figure it out for yourself, but 1) swatches lie and 2) I still want to know how tall yours is. Don't get me wrong, Hunter is one of my absolute favorite designers: I love her aesthetic, her yarn choices, and her patterns are clearly written. Those little sizing things just bug me.

It's still pretty, though!

Speaking of yarn choices: going back to the pattern page just now I realized Hunter used a 65% wool/35% silk blend yarn for her cowl. That would explain the lovely drap! My yarn was 70% wool/20% cashmere/10% nylon. Bugga has a little bit of drape to it, but not usually much when knit on size 4 needles. Oh well... It's still wearable, just not what I was going for. I'll get the next one!

Impracti-cowl?

Let me start this post off by saying this: I love the design of the finished cowl you are about to see and I do not at all blame the designer or the design for the tiny issues I have with my cowl. That said, I finished a gorgeous cowl and I'm not sure if it's practical for how I wanted to wear it, and therein lays my knitterly dilemma.

BMFA De-Vine, colorway Smokey Mountain Morn

This was the result of Star Athena's Mystery Cowl KAL, the pattern for which has since been named Sartorial Cowl. I think the pattern is a great match for this yarn, which grew a bit and relaxed nicely into the textured stitches after blocking. I still adore the yarn, its multiple plies gives it this great density and slickness. However, that density adds to part of my issue with the cowl: its heaviness and its length. There's really only one way to wear it:

And when worn this way, it's kind of like a 290 gram (10.2 oz) necklace. This sucker is HEAVY. This is mostly due to the bulky yarn, but the silvery metal buttons I bought for it don't help with the weight, either (although they matched so well). I have to sort of flop it over on itself like that in order for it to feel warm at all because it's far too large to be snug up to the neck:

And just a touch too short to be wrapped around twice:

I, quite frankly, don't know what to do! At this point, I'm really wishing I had  knit the small size, which would've been snugger around the neck but would've left me with a bunch of leftover yarn (mine was medium and large would've taken two skeins). I had wanted this cowl to be sort of an indoor cowl. My neck is always chilly at work and I wanted a little something to wear that wasn't really bulky and also wasn't a full-on scarf. I'm tempted to frog it and start over because the yarn is just too fantastic not to get worn, but it probably wouldn't get re-knit for months. I'm giving it a test drive at work today to see how it goes. What would you do?