How now, brown cow(l): the irresponsible knitter

When faced with looming deadlines you almost certainly can't make, it's important to jettison anything that isn't absolutely necessary...

...and then sneak in something you don't need to do at all but just feel like spending time on.

That's Wayson's cowl up there.  It's not a Christmas present but sort of a cold-weather present, which means January would also be fine.  In fact it would be especially fine because unlike my other cowl projects, the stitch on this one is a little bit slow to work.

On the other hand, it's a really simple stitch that produces a lot of texture and won't fold over - so many cowls do end up folding up on themselves and while that feature can look fine on a woman, it takes quite a man to carry it off. 

And I wanted to write up the pattern as a little gift to you guys, in time before Christmas to be a help to you if you were looking for such a thing for somebody on your list.

So: in between socks, I'm sneaking in stitches on Wayson's brown cowl.  And the farther I go, the more I am enjoying it, because the yarn (Twisted Fiber Art Duchess, a DK weight superwash wool, knit at a pretty loose gauge) is getting softer and softer with every inch.  The knit-purl texture makes holding it as I knit feel increasingly like petting a super soft poodle that's just out of the groomer's.

(I'm not going to be calling it the Poodle Cowl though.)

(and also, it's not the only non-Christmas cowl I'm planning to work on in the next couple of days.)

(I am going to be in lots of trouble making the sock deadlines, aren't I.)

I hope you are going to be working on some irresponsible things this weekend too and I will see you again on Monday!  With, hopefully, a much more sensible outlook on my knitting because OMIGOSH, November is already halfway done.