Wanted a fairly mindless knitting project for relaxing in front of the TV.

The yarn is a pretty blend of pink and purple and looks nice and squishy in its package-- excited to see how it knits up! (It’s definitely thinner than aran, by the way.)

This yarn is somewhat splitty and does shed a bit, but it’s not too bad, I guess. Fine for a smaller project like this.

I’ve decided to rip back (just finished the fourth round) and cast on an extra repeat or two. It just looks like it won’t be as big as I’d like, especially since the cowl decreases in circumference, if you follow the pattern…

Cast on 140 stitches (10 repeats). That first round (all purls) took me a while, but I think it was worth starting over again.

Decided a smaller needle might be better, so swapped down to size 7 after several rounds.

Found a couple of mistakes and decided to just frog it and restart. Using a shorter set of size 7 circular needles. Casting on for 9 repeats this time (126 stitches). I hope third time’s the charm!

The pattern repeat is easy to memorize, but it’s also easy to make an absent-minded mistake-- and those small mistakes seem to show up more glaringly than they might in a “busier” pattern/texture. I’m doing my best to pay attention and avoid mistakes-- and then to catch and fix any mistakes I do make-- because I’m tired of restarting this project! (!!!)

I had to fix one or two small mistakes early in that last restart, but this time it was much easier, over all.

I kept knitting until it was a little over a foot long, then did a k2, k2togtbl bind off to keep the edge stretchy. There’s a small ball of leftover yarn to add to the scrap stash.

Just have to weave in the two tails and block it, now!