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

The Cotton Yarn

As the socks of doom (well, they weren't that bad) are now done, it's time to start thinking of a new project. The only yarn that I have left is the Novita Hanko cotton yarn, that I have almost three skeins of.

Yesterday I browsed Ravelry like mad, trying to figure out what to make. I really wanted to make some kind of a small bolero/shrug to take with me on the psy trance festivals next summer but I quickly noticed that the bolero would turn out gnome sized with only (almost) three skeins of this bulky stuff. So, change of plan.

Socks? Naah, I just did a pair. Scarf? Naah, too boring. A cowl? Hey, there's an idea! There were a couple of candidates, but this one crossed the finish line first. So, Kuala Lumpur and your lovely yarn shop, get ready, because my shopping list just grew with a couple of needles!

Have you made any cool projects with cotton yarn? :)

With love, Lilje