A Cowl and a Pair of Socks

I haven't written for quite a while about what I've been knitting, but I have finished two things in January and February, so it's time to present them.

I haven't knitted many pairs of socks so far, but decided a while ago that maybe I should knit more of them, and I made a pair for my daughter for Christmas. I also decided that I ought to try wearing hand-knit socks myself, instead of knitting them just for other people. (Can't say yet how that's going to turn out.)

So I bought some sock yarn in November from Loop, in Camden Passage, for a pair of socks for me.  It's Lang Jawoll Sock Yarn, in Caramel.  The pattern is from Cat Bordhi's book, Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles (although actually I knitted my socks on one circular needle, using the magic loop method).  The pattern I chose has a design of Bavarian twisted stitches - I went to a workshop on Bavarian twisted stitches two years ago and have been looking for a suitable project to do more.

This was I think my 6th pair of socks (apart from a heelless spiral pair), and the previous pairs were knitted toe-up.  But this pair were knitted top-down.  That is the traditional way to knit socks, so I'm perhaps a bit backwards to start knitting top-down at this stage.  The heel shaping is also, I'm told, a traditional method, with a heel-flap, and a sort of triangular base to the heel.  I don't much like it, to be honest - the triangular piece doesn't seem very natural.  It's also the first time I have grafted the toes of socks.   They are very nice socks, but I think I'll go back to knitting socks toe-up in future. 

The other thing I have made since Christmas is a Moebius cowl.  I went to a workshop at the Guild Convention last July, led by Fiona Morris, and I've been intending to knit a Moebius cowl ever since.  I bought the yarn at the Knitting & Stitching Show last November - a discontinued Debbie Bliss super chunky yarn called Winter Garden, which is a surprising mix of llama, wool, silk and linen.  The colour is called Copper.

A Moebius strip is a surface with only one side and one edge.  You can make one from a strip of paper, and joining the two ends after putting a half-twist into the strip.  And you can knit a Moebius cowl in the same way - knit a rectangle, twist it and join the ends e.g. by grafting.  But it's much more satisfying to a knit a Moebius strip directly, with one side and one edge, and you can do that.  The cast on becomes embedded in the middle of the knitting, and isn't an edge - the only edge is created by the cast off.

  (I've posed it on an up-turned mixing bowl, in case you're wondering.)

Fiona suggested a diagonal rib as a possible stitch pattern that would work well.   It's a bit mind-boggling that if you keep knitting a diagonal rib, always going in the same direction, you get a cowl with a chevron pattern.

To repeat: the cast on is in the middle, between the ribs going in the opposite directions, and the cast-off edge is at the top and bottom, but is actually just one edge.  Best not to think about it too much.   

A Woven Stitch Cowl

I've been knitting a lot of neckwear lately - the Petal Cowl and the Seascape scarf.   Both of those were knitted in Louisa Harding's Amitola yarn, which is lovely, and I wanted to try the thicker version, Amitola Grande, which is about Aran thickness, and the same soft mix of wool and silk.  So I knitted another cowl in it last month - I was knitting it at Sheringham after I finished the Seascape scarf, and it was a quick knit.

I knew from a cowl that a friend had knitted in Amitolda Grande that it was likely to have very definite stripes, and I wanted a more blurry effect.  So I knitted it in woven stitch again, like the mitts I made before Christmas.   In that case, I chose woven stitch for its texture, but the effect of the slipped stitches on a variegated yarn is to avoid sharp changes of colour between rows, by mixing the colours together.  The effect is  really nice....

  ... and the other side is very presentable too.

I made the cowl quite small, and shaped towards the top - I didn't want to have too much loose fabric around my neck.  (It doesn't keep you warm and just gets in the way, is my opinion.)

I like it very much - I've been wearing it a lot.

This colourway of Amitola Grande is called Sleepy Hollow (525).  I usually like to know the names of yarn colours - they are often very evocative.  But Sleepy Hollow is a horror film, I never watch horror films, and I'm not very happy to think of a horror film when I look at my cowl.  (I have just watched the Sleepy Hollow trailer and the colours are very muted, with lots of browns and greys, so perhaps that's the reason for the name.)