20.5.08

cowling at the moon

I am thrilled to say that Megan loves the cowls I knit for her. I have to say, I prefer knitting for knitters than for non-knitters. Knitters "get it" when they are presented with a handknit. They know how much care was taken in the construction. They appreciate good fiber. They coo over the details. They "get it." Sometimes non-knitters when presented with a handknit don't really appreciate it as much. They know that a certain amount of work went into creating the item, but having never knit themselves, they don't really understand - that even though lace is a breeze when you're actually knitting it the charts themselves can be a little maddening and that a mistake is hard to fix and that if you're a combination knitter you have to do things differently, or that cables can be complex, or that certain fibers are much nicer than others. It's all the same to them. Anyhoo, onto the cowl details:

Monkey Cowl

teaser

pattern: based on the Monkey sock pattern
designer: modification of Cookie A.'s work
yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock in the old 325 yards put-up in Turquoise
needles: Clover size US#3 16 inch circs
modifications: I cast on 144 stitches, k1p1 for 6 rounds, worked the pattern 9 times over the stitches, knit 9 pattern repeats total, k1p1 for 6 more rows, then bound off in k1p1.

ssc - surprise! (teaser #2)

pattern: slightly modified Lace Rib Cowl
designer: Joelle at the purl bee
yarn: Malabrigo Silky Merino in Ankara Green
needles: Crystal Palace size US#7 16 inch circs
modifications: I cast on 108 stitches and knit 20 pattern repeats total, so the final result is not as loose-fitting as the purl bee's cowl. It's slouchy without being flappy.

Soooooo, I thought I had taken photos of the cowls once I finished them, but apparently, all I can find on my iPhoto of the lace rib cowl are detail shots, so that's all I've got for you. And my lighting made it look much greener than it does in natural light, as it looks pretty turquoise on Megan. Doesn't she look happy wearing it?

5 comments:

jess said...

it's cowl mania over here! ;) i never really thought of making or wearing one, but you've got me mulling . . .

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing your details on the Monkey cowl! I absolutely love it!

craftoholic said...

They are beautiful and look great on Megan!

nova said...

I think the monkey sock stitch (whatever it is) as cowl is genius... I am sorry I did not get a chance to meet up with you...I suppose I will have to wait for 2.0.

Christy said...

Um, yeah, totally with you on the pooping thing.
And dude, JFrick is wearing my cowl! Caro knit that one for me, and Julia apparently tried to steal it.