But not with envy 😉
A few months ago, I felt unhappy because all the yarn I had left to knit with was gray. Rather depressing. But buying yarn is not easy here. There are a few shops that carry it (as far as I know) and none of them has a lot.
At that moment I even thought there were only two shops that carried it. But I was in town and decided to pop into a fabric store I discovered that day. And there, right in the back they actually had some yarn. Acrylic, of course (they love their polyester here – clothes, sheets, fabric, and yarn), but there was this green that I loved (still my favorite color, it seems). I asked if there were more skeins than the three on the shelve and they dug through a few boxes for me, but alas, no luck there. I bought the three skeins anyway. Just because they were there. And they weren’t grey.
And then they just sat there, because I didn’t know what to do with them. A shawl? But I don’t like how they slip off my shoulders constantly. A cowl? But I had plenty of yarn to work with and it would be nice to cover my shoulders.
I found inspiration on the internet (where else?). I already had this cowl in the back of my mind, but more recently I’ve been admiring Chris’ design and Jeannie’s version of it.
Could have waited for the pattern to be released, of course, but I was impatient and made up my own version. I can always knit another one when the pattern is there. Since really, you can’t have enough cowls (oh wait, maybe you can if you’re living in the tropics and only visit colder regions a few weeks every year. But let’s ignore that little fact.)
So I cast on some stitches (better description below) and used a stitch pattern based on Soulemama’s hat pattern. When I thought the neck section was high enough I doubled the stitches and just kept knitting from there.
I have to admit, it did get frustrating after a while. That stitch pattern is perfect for a small project like a hat and even a cowl, but it was very slow (and hard on the arthritic hands) knitting for the shoulder part.
But I do love the result.
I also love that the stitch pattern turned out to be reversible. I may even prefer the inside…
What I did:
CO 102 stitches, join in the round
knit three ridges of garter stitch (alternating K and P rows)
Stitch pattern:
1. k1, yo, k2tog – repeat till end of round
2. k1, yo, k2tog – repeat till end of round
3,4,5 P all stitches
Repeat pattern 6 times
Increasing:
1. k1, yo till end of round (204 stitches)
2. K all stitches
3,4,5 P all stitches
Return to stitch pattern, repeat 9 times + first two rows once
knit three ridges of garter stitch
Cast off