TEST KNIT!

I have a lonely but lovely skein of precious discontinued Madelinetosh Pashmina Worsted in Sun Rose. A bit grouchy since the weight is only 84.5g, so I’ll be doing the small, short size (#1) with this one. Fingers crossed no yarn chicken!

CAST-ON Method:
. JSSCO aka Jeny’s Stretchy Slipknot CO

BAWK-BAWK! YARN CHICKEN?!
. Because I have a smaller cake, I weighed it again when I got about 1/3 of the way - 5 rounds ribbing through round 16 (21 rounds).
. 84.5g total - 61.9g remaining = 22.6 used
. The pattern is mirrored, so if I subtract another 22.6 for the top 1/3, that leaves 39.3 for the middle diamond, which is 26 rounds.
. I think it’ll be okay … and it was.
… Middle diamond used 28.0g
… Final third used 22.5g
… I only have 11.4g remaining, so that wouldn’t be enough for another middle diamond repeat. And it’s tall enough as it is.

CABLES
. I used needle-less method for the 2:1 cables
… I believe Staci Perry might have a tutorial video?
… I just pinch the base of the stitches, then use my needle tips to rearrange the order.

. 2:1:2 LCP cable is tricky! Combo method
… use dpn/cable needle to hold first 2 knit stitches in front
… then pinch off the purl stitch, and slip the next 2 knit stitches onto the right needle tip
… carefully, slip that purl stitch onto right needle next
… transfer the 2 knit sts on dpn over to left needle
… then transfer the other 3 sts onto left needle
… it’s tight, so I use the needle tips - my ChiaoGoo sharp tips really help.
… I like having them rearranged, all together on the left needle before knitting them in order. I’m finding that the rightmost sts have less gap before them.

LEGGY LOU
. The other tricksy I do is after I knit the last two sts, I take my needle tip and give the left leg of the first knit stitch a tug upward. That leg tends to disappear because the leftmost knit stitch gets stretched out so much from the distance it has to span.
… For some reason, this is more pronounced on my left-leaning cables, although I occasionally spot it on my right ones and do a similar adjustment.
. I also do a ‘switchback tug’ on the purl stitch that follows. Meaning, I purl that stitch, then switch the yarn back as if to knit, but give it a firm tug to tighten that stitch, and then switchback to purl the second stitch.

. On my next iteration of this cowl, I think I’ll take another look at what Patty Lyon’s has to say about transitioning from knit to purl. I think she’s got a way to even out the stitches. Just ordered her Knitting Bag of Tricks book.

BIND-OFF Method:
. Lori’s Twisty BO - I use a shorter length dpn
. This edge is a little looser than the CO edge

DIMENSIONS - Unblocked
. 8” high x 18” circumference (center)

DIMENSIONS - Blocked
. 9” high x 18.5” circumference

. stretches easily over 22” circ head