Linen stitch cowl

Pattern/Technique: Jessica Jones Cowl by Handmade by Smine

Modifications: n/a

Materials: 1 skein Cece’s Wool Sock (3 ply fingering weight, 88% SW merino, 12% nylon, 490yds / 115g) in Rhinebeck 23 colorway

US9 24” ChiaoGoo SS circular knitting needle

New skills: EZ Sewn Bind Off

Lessons/Notes: While knitting the main fabric I held the tension in my working yarn fairly tightly so that I would have a nice structured fabric. I probably also could have achieved this more consistently by going down a needle size. I think there was some slight increase in tension toward the middle/top of the cowl vs. the bottom, but nothing overtly noticeable given the subtle variation in the variegated tones.

The cowl pattern called for 100g of fingering weight wool, so I knit until I had a small ball left then started weighing the ball and stopped knitting when my ball was 15g. (I certainly could have knit that remaining 15g but I love this colorway and would like to use my remnant as a pop of color on another knitting/weaving project.)

This is a very long cowl, which ends up having a really nice height and proportionality even as it slouches down around the neck.

What I'd do differently: The bound off edge looks a little bit rustic, so if I make this again I might research ways to get a more even finish when binding off linen stitch (e.g. perhaps 1 round knitting all stitches to have an even row of loops before binding off?)

Care: hand wash, dry flat

Beinn Hat for Terri

Blue Beinn Hat (for Terri)

Pattern/Technique: Beinn Hat by Luise O’Neill

Modifications: Made mods based on notes from https://www.ravelry.com/projects/shebeest/beinn-hat

  • CO 108 sts since the Illimani Amelie I used is a bit thicker than a standard worsted weight

  • Knit 10 repeats before starting crown shaping

    • The pattern specifies knitting repeats until the hat is 7.75”, but my 9th repeat had me at 7.25” and 10th was just over 8”. Given I was skipping 2 sets of crown decreases the bit of extra length actually worked out quite well.

Materials: US 5 16” circular needle (Clover Takumi bamboo since I was traveling and didn’t have my regular needles at hand) + cable needle

1 skein (+2 yds) Illimani Amelie in ZL62 (denim blue)

New skills: n/a

Lessons/Notes: This fit my mom really well—upon seeing it, my dad tried it on and requested one of his own too (so it goes). For his, I’ll cast on more stitches (116 or 124) and knit the same number of repeats to accommodate his larger head circumference.

What I'd do differently: n/a

Care: Hand wash, dry flat and block to desired shape