The little cowl that could

I will regret knitting so many gift cowls all at once, but they truly are the most brainless thing, and I'm in a state of Near-Overload on the brain front these days.

I figure I will at least come out of this fog of decision-making and paperwork with some knits all ready to wrap.  And later, when I'm still on Near-Overload and stuck knitting gift socks whose sizing I have to reassess constantly, I can lay my weary head back on a stack of gift cowls.  Shortsighted Genius, thy name is Mary.

This particular cowl is being knit from a 'evolution' colourway - one of those guys that starts off one colour, shifts once or twice, and ends being something else.  Only I spun this myself into two cakes each running from A to D, and didn't hold it double to knit it, so what I'm going to get is a lot more like A - B - C - D - D - C - B - A.  I could have gone ABCDABCD but the D to A in the middle might have looked a bit weird.

Mind you, the D followed by a second D in lighter weight yarn isn't necessarily going to look anything but hand made.  It's pretty wide, isn't it.

Thankfully, when I'd used up all the yarn, it did come out looking balanced enough against the two shades of purple at the ends - those sort of blend into each other in a mistake-concealing way.

The pattern I'm using here couldn't be easier, in case you were wondering.  I aim for a 22" - 24" cowl with a total stitch count that favours a 4-stitch repeat.  After I've done my gauge swatch and cast on, I do two rounds of K2, P2, followed by two rounds of P2, K2, repeated until I have just enough yarn left to cast off in whatever round would come next, or until I hit 7 inches from the start, whichever comes first.

Not that I'm hoping for a super cold winter or anything, but if it does get crazy cold like last year, these cowls should keep some people nice and cosy warm.  Can't ask more than that of a gift knit, can you.

ps, remember this time last year when I knit a handspun gift cowl for my writing workshop leader? Well, she just won a big literary award for the book she was in the process of publishing at the time!  Though she's won lots of awards for her work I was especially pleased to hear about this one - writing is hard, but this book had to have been harder than most.  Check it out - All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews.  Nobody talks about life the way she does, never mind as generously, and I think more people should.


Hope you're cosy and warm today, cowl or no cowl, and I'll see you tomorrow!