The Cotton Cowl

Due to all the icky illness-related things, this post is way overdue. The cowl of doom, as I fondly call it, was finished already in Thailand. It turned out... well, what should I say. It is a cowl, yes. It can be worn around one's neck. It even magically stretches enough so that you can wrap it awound your neck twice (as it is knit so loosely). It doesn't really look anything like it was supposed to. Do I like it? Weeeeelll... Maybe as a festival cowl.

But hey people, seriously, cowls? I don't really see their point. They're just a woolly/cottony thing you wrap around your neck, that hangs there loosely like an oversized necklace. The only ones that are really useful are the really long ones, that wrap around many times and keep you warm. But the normal ones? They either leave the neck or the throat bare. And what's the use in that? Maybe you can enlighten me? :) (Or maybe, just maybe, if this one had turned out like it should with the other end way tighter and smaller, there would be no reason for this rant.) //

Noniin, valmis on. Ei siitä kovin kaunis tullut, mutta kyllähän tuota nyt kaulassaan roikuttaa. En vaan ehkä tajua tällasten tuubihuivien pointtia: ne vaan roikkuu siinä ja jättää joko kaulan tai kurkun paljaaksi. Mikä järki? Paitsi tietty jos ne on semmoisia pitkiä joita voi kieputtaa useammin kaulan ympärille. Ne tajuan. Muita en. Valaiskaa fiksummat jos olen väärässä. Tietty jos tästä olisi tullut mallinsa kaltainen eli toinen pää paljon pienempi ja tiukempi, ehkä ei olis syytä tuubienvastaisrintamalle...

Pattern: State street cowl

Yarn: Novita Hanko

Needles: 9 and 10, circular

Mood: Well, it's done...

With love, Lilje

The Most Unyielding Yarn Ever

After the owl mittens were done, I was excited to start a new project. It involved bigger needles and bulky yarn. Yay for speedy knitting, I thought. Hmmh, not so. Have you ever tried knitting with cotton yarn? I thougt when I was making the small entrelac patch that the yarn was absolutely fine. But when casting on for the state street cowl I noticed that the yarn had a mind of its own. It. Just. Wouldn't. Budge. I mean, no give at all. Zero. Zilch. When knitting with small needles, I don't think that's a problem, but when knitting with such thick ones (9 and 10 mm) with a thin cable in between you really have your work cut out for you. As the yarn is so rigid, you have to constantly pull stitches on the left needle and push them off the right one, and I don't mean gently. After the first night of knitting my thumb was really sore from pulling the stitches from the  cable onto the thick needle. Pheew! The finished knit surface seems ok, though, so I think the cowl will be wearable even though it will be an effort to finish.

The other problem were the yarn overs that were marked in the pattern. As you can't really knit tight with a yarn like this (or at least I can't), the holes the yarn overs left were HUGE. So, after doing a few, I decided to knit the rest of them from the back loop and close the holes that way. Maybe the big holes would have looked nice in the end, but now they just look like mistakes... Oh well, it's not like I'm planning of selling this masterpiece to anyone, so as a festival cowl I think it will serve its purpose just fine.

Stay tuned for the whole story after I finish the damn thing ;) //

En tiedä onko kaikkien puuvillalankojen kanssa näin, mutta tämä yksilö ainakaan ei anna periksi IHAN YHTÄÄN. Paksuilla puikoilla neulottaessa on kyllä melko työlästä kiskoa silmukoita kaapelilta takaisin puikolle neulottaviksi. Lisäksi jäljestä tulee melko löysää, kun silmukoita ei oikein tiukempaan voi neuloa että ne edes jotenkin saa takaisin puikoille riivittyä. Mutta hei, eihän tää myyntiin oo menossa ja oppia ikä kaikki ja semmoista. Tikutellaan siis menemään ja toivotaan parasta :) Kyllä tästä hyvä festarikauluri tulee...

With love, Lilje