Super Secret Summer Solstice Knitting Swap; so excited to have gotten to knit for a dear friend and all around amazing person! As she was going to call her gift “Squishy,” so it shall be. :)

All notes were recorded in Knit Companion, as obviously I couldn’t keep track of anything on Ravelry. ;) Now that the swap is complete, I’m inputting the details based on what I was able to record at the time.

3/20: Began building pattern in to KC.
4/19: Knit swatch.
4/20: Began knitting.
4/21: Gauge swatch lied. Frogged and began again.

Started on 3s; gauge way too loose.
Pattern calls for 7.5 sts/inch and 7 rows/inch in stranded colorwork. I’m getting 9 sts/inch and 10 rows/inch…blocking will enlarge a bit, but looser looked like garbage.

4/21/17
Frogged and switched to US 2 (2.75 mm) and restarted. Used tip from Knitpurlhunter video and carried lifeline (dental floss) through PCO so that the first “half-stitch” that’s usually lost when picking up CO edging would be easily salvaged.

GENERAL NOTES:

• Dominant color throughout is gray; I do colorwork two-handed, so gray carried in left hand.

• Pattern has numerous single color rows. Normally, I would still carry the second color and trap it along the back at intervals; however, due to the ombré effect of this yarn, I didn’t want to have color loss due to wasted stranding. However, because the cowl has a border on each side where there are two gray stitches on EVERY row, and a color stitch every other row (slipped on one), I needed a plan for the gray in particular. (On the rare rows where I would be knitting a gray row and need to knit color stitches in the margins, I picked up a float from the row below, which worked fine.)

To solve the issue of having a consistent gray working yarn along the side of the cowl close to the beginning, I would simply take the working strand of gray and move it back five stitches (from the beginning of the round to the last stitch before the margin), then trap it behind the last color stitch BEFORE it was needed (so there wasn’t a gap), then knit with it as usual.

For the margin halfway across the cowl, I cut lengths of gray yarn and carried them up the cowl, using them as needed. I used the same process as before, trapping the yarn a stitch before I needed to use it, and would also anchor it after the last stitch by trapping it with the next stitch after the margin. I was VERY CAREFUL when doing this to leave LONG VERTICAL FLOATS between areas that needed this yarn, as I didn’t want the cowl to pull. This method definitely wouldn’t work for all methods of stranded colorwork, but given the forgiving nature of the tube, it was very handy for this project!

• First cupcake (Cherish) worked through Chart D. (Also 25% mark with regard to pattern.)

• Second cupcake (Circle) worked through Chart G, 1/3 of Chart H. (Passed 50% mark by 47 rows.)

• Wanted to personalize cowl to make it special for Blythe; modified a musical chart I found online so that it would fit the stitch count of the pattern. Flipped colors so that dominant color from rest of cowl (gray) became background color, with black as dominant for notes. (Black yarn was some hand-dyed yarn I had on-hand that was the same weight as Tasty, but I no longer remember the brand/details.) Inserted music chart after first pattern of Chart H.

• After adding custom chart, flipped around two motifs in Chart H and I to better mesh with the custom panel.

• Third colors (Flame coordinate and Blaze evo - yellow, orange, and some coral/red only) worked from remaining motifs in Charts H, along with one motif from Chart I.

• Blended orange from Blaze with center of second Cherish cupcake to complete cowl using kitchener stitch.

• Did not use any motifs from Charts J, K, or L.

According to Knit Companion, total time to knit (only counting when I had app open; some patterns were pretty easy to memorize!) was right around 150 hours. I’m getting slow in my old age!