Several of you agreed with part of my last post saying that the winter doldrums were upon us and quick knits were quite satisfying. Here’s another that I can highly recommend!

Honey Cowl

Pattern: Honey Cowl
Yarn: Baby Alpaca Grande, 1 skein
Needles: size 10.5 knitpicks harmony
Knit: 1/26-27/2009

I cast this on during Monday morning’s commute, I cast off during lunch on Tuesday. I did put a couple of rows in on Monday night at home, but seriously? Really fast knit! In fact, it sort of felt like I was knitting with tree trunks. I can’t remember the last time I used needles this big! And I went down a size, just because the alpaca is a much more drapey yarn than the Morehouse Merino bulky that was called for in the pattern and I wanted a fabric that would be sturdy and not too floppy. I have an intimate knowledge of that yarn after knitting Audubon and these two are no where near alike accept in gauge (incidentally, still one of my favorite sweaters. God I love that thing!).

In some ways, this actually took a bit longer to knit up than I thought it would, mostly for two reasons. The alpaca yarn is a bit on the splitty side, but one would expect that from a rather loosely spun and plied alpaca. It’s part of that lovely fuzz that makes it so warm and cozy! The other reason is that alpaca does not have nearly the give that a nice squishy merino like Morehouse has, so that made the cabling go a bit slower. Once again, if you know alpaca, you already know this since alpaca doesn’t have the same kind of crimp as wool, so it’s only to be expected.

I seriously may not take this thing off until spring. As you can probably tell from the pics, I took it out on my afternoon break during work on Tuesday for a test drive and a photo shoot and it is quite warm and toasty! It was a bit blustery and my neck was quite happy. My ears? Notsomuch. One of these days I’ll get around to making an angora ear warmer. For now, perhaps it’s time to buckle down and get the sleeves finished on my Roses pullover.

Provided I don’t get distracted by something else…

Thanks for all the kind comments on the spinning in the last post. The yarn has been redyed and it’s a much deeper and prettier red. I hope to show that to you in the next post as it is hanging to dry as we speak.

I realized today that I’d been holding out on you on an FO.

Un-Birthday Cowl

Try to ignore how tired I look here. I guess it was another long day at work.

Pattern: Birthday Cowl
Yarn: Manos Silk Blend
Needles: Size 8 harmony circs
Knit: 10/14-10/16/2008

This one knit up so fast I almost forgot about it! A great easy pattern that makes a very nice cowl. Once again, I loved every stitch of this yarn, but experience has now taught me that perhaps I should have used a slightly smaller needle. Both cowls that I’ve knit with this yarn have done some stretching and aren’t nearly as snug around the neck as I might like now. As afraid as I was that they wouldn’t fit over my big melon, I should have gone a touch smaller. Both are still quite serviceable though.

Oh yeah, and I apologize to all of you that seem to have caught the cowl bug from me. It seems several friends on Plurk and in the NJFiberFanatics have been bitten by the cowl bug. Meaculpa!

The thing that’s bitten me big time lately is spinning. I’m sure you think this isn’t really news, but I’m talking about spindle spinning. Do you know how freekin’ cool it is to be able to spin at work on my lunch and afternoon breaks now?? Check this out:

That’s some absolutely amazing baby camel down/tussah silk blend fiber that the ever generous Juno gave me some time ago. I’m spinning it on one of my new Golding spindles and I couldn’t love it all more. Not only do I get to savor an amazing fiber blend that I know I would probably never be indulgent enough to buy for myself, I get to play with my new toy too. And did I mention I get to do it all at work?!? Can you say LOVE?!?

No idea what I’ll do with it when it’s all done. All I know is I’m loving it. The spindling bug has bitten. Hard.

You’ll please excuse the radio silence this week. I seem to be getting pulled in several directions at once which is not conducive to blogging.

Anyway, the game last Friday night was awesome! We had a great time despite being in what I’m affectionately referring to as the “bimbo section”. Think last row with a bunch of women with bellies and tramp stamps exposed and each painted with a letter to spell something or other. Really makes you wonder about how women are being raised in this country. I kept telling HWJF “Eyes forward!” while he said he was looking at the chicken wings. My Dad was not looking at the chicken wings. But I digress!

Most of the rest of the weekend was spent working on the Rhinebeck sweater (more on that soon!). On Monday we had the day off and decided to take a trip to the Central Park Zoo. We wandered around the park a bit when we arrived and passed this fountain. After finally asking directions (ahem!) we arrived at the zoo. At this point I was thinking “How good can it be if we couldn’t even find it?!?” but I was quickly proven wrong! While it’s definitely a small zoo, it’s well designed and really gives you an up close and person experience with the animals that I’ve not seen all that often anywhere else. You can see all the pics here but the highlight for me had to be this:

Polar bear butt!!! Dude was putting on quite a show swimming back and forth with his eyes closed. Adorable! Unfortunately I can’t help but think that the way this planet is going, this may be the only way to see these amazing animals pretty soon. Vote early and often people!!

We also made the trip over to Tender Buttons. It’s really a lovely little shop with some unique and interesting buttons. It seemed inappropriate for pictures, but if you’re ever in the area you really should take a trip over there. I’m already thinking about going back for the buttons for what I’m planning to be my next sweater.

The last part of the day was a failed attempt to get into the audience of The Colbert Report. I didn’t mind all that much since I got to finish sewing the buttons on the Rhinebeck sweater while waiting in line. But we know the deal now and I do believe we’ll be successful if we get a chance to attempt it again.

On the knitting front the cowl craze has taken over my life. Maybe now I know why I waited so long. I’d have gotten nothing else done otherwise! I finished up the Zig Zag Cowl this weekend and it went straight into the dyepot. Remember the original color?

No longer!

Zig Zag Cowl

(There’s a little Rhinebeck sweater preview there for ya.)

Pattern: Zig Zag Cowl
Yarn: Handspun two ply wool/angora/mohair blend
Needles: Size 8 harmony circs
Knit: 10/6-10/12/2008 including the time to over dye it

The cowl that started it all for me! I found this to be a really fun pattern that I just couldn’t seem to put down. The lace is fairly easy and I think it would make a good beginner lace project. I originally cast on two extra repeats because I thought it looked small, but after finishing the first picot edge I quickly realized it would be more than big enough and decreased those stitches out. It is a bit narrower at the top than the bottom because of this but I think that’s just fine.

(I had way to much fun with photo effects for this post!)

HWJF likes this one so much I think he’s going to steal it if I’m not careful. I think that has more to do with the color than anything. It was kind of a happy accident. I was going for a deep teal but I knew that it might turn green considering the original color. The result was this lovely emerald/almost hunter color that has the expected tonal variations due to the fiber content. I’m not usually into green but I really like the result!

Next on the cowl hit parade:

Crofters Cowl

Pattern: Crofters Cowl
Yarn: Manos Silk Blend
Needles: Size 8 harmony circs
Knit: 10/10-10/14/2008
Mods: No grafting!

(Expression here courtesy of 3 hour meeting at work.)

I started this one on the way to the hockey game last Friday (my Dad always comments on how my hands can never be still!). The yarn is a loosely spun single that is just like buttah! Every stitch is a dream. The resulting cowl is warm, soft and cozy. Just what you’d want in a cowl!

I didn’t quite follow the pattern on this one. Once again, I thought it would be too small to fit over my big melon otherwise so I cast on 100 sts instead of the 80 called for. I’m glad I did because I think it drapes kind of nicely this way. I was also way too lazy to deal with knitting three repeats, casting on and doing another three repeats and grafting them together, so I just knit from the beginning until I almost ran out of yarn and cast off. It ended up being about 6.5 repeats and I think it worked out just fine. I’m all about the simple after the Rhinebeck sweater!

Speaking of the Rhinebeck sweater, tune in tomorrow for the FO post on that. You know, if I don’t bounce off my chair in anticipation of actually going to Rhinebeck!

The cowl craze took off around the knitting world earlier this year and I really didn’t see the point. It’s not a scarf, you have to pull it over your head, could it really keep you warm? I was not a believer. Enter the current financial mess in the world and the news stories about the price of heating your home this winter skyrocketing and my knitting mind turned to things to keep my cold little self warm, even in the house, this winter. Keeping wrists and neck warm are really key to overall comfort. Also, as the weather has been cooling off I’ve been wearing the mobius that I finished earlier this year like this alot:

Suddenly the cowl thing didn’t seem so dumb. After consulting with my local cowl expert and thinking about the stash a bit I dove in with the Zig Zag Cowl and some handspun yarn:

Long-time readers might recognize this yarn as the one I spun from fiber that was given to me at Rhinebeck last year. It’s a wool/angora/mohair blend that I spun into a semi-inconsistent two ply yarn. It’s a fairly soft yarn with the angora content, but it’s pretty sturdy too. I started it Tuesday night and by yesterday afternoon it looked like this:

I expect to finish it today or tomorrow. When I tried it on last night after SnB, HWJF said “Didn’t you just start that?” I said yes. He replied “Then why is it done already?!”. It’s an addictive little pattern and I just can’t seem to put it down (I almost missed my train stop one day because of it!). Oh yeah, and never fear, when it’s done it’s going in the dyepot. Lime-ish green is *so* not my color.

At SnB last night I bought yarn for at least two more cowls. Expect to see them on the needles before you know it.

Still in the game

For those that might be wondering, knitting on the Rhinebeck sweater is finished! I’ve started seaming it up and so far so good. Unfortunately, I should have listened a little more closely to the Ravelry posts about the extra fabric in the sleeves. My incorrect row gauge seemed like it was going to make everything better but it turns out it didn’t. I don’t think it’s a huge problem though so I’m soldiering on at this point. Hopefully I can get all the seaming and the collar and button band finished up this weekend because there are plans to do some button shopping on Monday. Wish me luck!

And finally,

Going to the game!!!

On the spur of the moment we got tickets to tonight’s home opener for the NJ Devils!! My Dad is coming down for it and I’m so excited I may just drive all my coworkers crazy as I bounce off the walls today until I get to leave. The Sabres will always be my team, but I’ve been jonesing for a hockey fix like crazy lately and I can’t wait!!!!!!!!

Have a great weekend everyone! I know I will!!!