22-11-2024

Cold grey November days make me want to pick up my knitting needles. It’s been a while! But I need a cowl to keep my new North Face winter coat’s collar from curling in and poking under my chin. Looked at patterns for a while and was initially looking for something more plain, but was charmed by the Spiritual Guardian title (yay D&D) and also reminded of how much I loved making Lucas’s Both Sides Now scarf.

I have some lovely Malabrigo Rios in Anniversario from my awful misadventure with the Writer’s Block sweater, so even though variegated yarns and cables don’t go great together, I think I’ll use that up. That’s worsted, so I guess I’ll use a #6 needle?

22-11-2024

Perhaps I don’t like knitting after all?

Start one, cast on went perfect, 160 stitches. Knew from glancing at the pattern it started with ribbing, so finished the first row of k2p2 rib before noticing that it doesn’t start with k2. Looked at it for a while, decided to restart. Frogged, noted the 5 foot extra tail I had, shortened my slip knot placement by 4 feet. Cast on again, was 4 inches too short with my tail.

Leaving cast on #3 for another day.

23-11-2024

Cast on #3 successful through the first row of ribbing. Surely that was the hardest part?

From the comments on the original pattern, a note from the author:

https://www.knitpicks.com/learning-center/1-Over-1-Cabling here’s a link to some of the ways of achieving the 1/1RC.

24-11-2024

I spent a while transferring the text version of the pattern over to a spreadsheet so I could mark my progress, but found I liked the graphic chart version of the pattern better and found it much easier to follow. That was a surprise.

This is a quick, straightforward knit and with 5 pattern repeats each row (for the snuggly version), it falls into a nice rhythm as you’re knitting.

Currently about 1/3 of the way through the first of 2 repeats.

30-11-2024

This cowl is purpose made to wear with my bulky North Face winter coat. I miss having a scarf when I wear that coat and the collar digs into my jaw a bit, so I was hoping the cowl would provide a little extra warmth around my neck and chin. I wanted something a little less bulky than the double-looped infinity scarf that I usually wear for winter warmth because the coat itself is already quite bulky.

I had intended to make the snuggly, shorter version but as I finish my first time through the pattern, I think I’m going to make a half of a shorter version with only one repeat. But I think I’m going to add 20 rows of ribbing instead of 12 to finish it off. I want a little bit more length, but not much more, and I can whip through the ribbing much faster than I can work my way through the equivalent amount of cabling rows.

I really like this pattern. Having the stitch markers delineating each repeat makes following along (and fixing the many mistakes when my attention wandered) quite easy. I quite enjoy cabled patterns - they seem quite complicated and are a bit magical when they come together, but they’re usually fairly straightforward to work your way through. The cables and ribbing make the cowl stretchy and squishy. I knew the cables would get somewhat lost with the variegated Rios Anniversario yarn, but that just masks the inevitable spots where I missed a cable twist or two. While I’ll tink my way back through a quarter of a row or so to fix a mistake, anything beyond that I’ll usually shrug off as long as it doesn’t mess with the integrity of the structure.

07-12-2024

Me, muttering under my breath for all 160 stitches of Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off (new to me but recommended in the pattern): wrap clockwise, knit, off, off; wrap clockwise, knit, off, off; wrap counterclockwise, purl, off, off; wrap counterclockwise, purl, off, off; wrap clockwise, knit, off, off; wrap clockwise, knit, off, off; wrap counterclockwise, purl, off, off; wrap counterclockwise, purl, off, off… Do you find that repeating the pattern verbally helps you follow it? I really had to concentrate on every single stitch through this bind off, but it is, indeed, super stretchy and a lovely way to finish this cowl.

Note to me for the next time I try this, it’s easier to slip the stitches off after the purl if you move the working yarn to the back. When you bring it back around to purl again, the yarn over is basically a continuation of the motion to bring the yarn back to the front.

I’m super happy with this. It took me about 2 weeks of casual knitting, and the once-through of the cable pattern without a repeat in the snuggly version was exactly perfect for what I wanted. We’re going out into a very cold morning to get our Christmas tree today, so I will put this cowl to an immediate test of it’s capabilities, but with my pajamas on this cozy Saturday morning as I finish it off, it is exactly what I wanted!

07-12-2024

I wore this today and it is perfect for my purposes. Exactly what I wanted! The cables, while not very visible with the variegated yarn, are stretchy and give the cowl considerable heft. I can flip the cowl up for warmth up and over my chin, or down to tuck under like a collar. It has lots of little mistakes in it - my projects always do - but it’s a lovely functional cozy cowl.