Hooded Knit Cowl

A friend asked me if I could finish knitting this hooded cowl that she had started. I wanted to see it first to make sure it was something I was able to knit. It looked easy enough to knit, so I took it on and knit it, but I ripped out what she had knit and started from the beginning because I wanted to make sure that it was all knit in my tension.

It didn't take long to knit. It is a free pattern on Ravelry too, even though she gave me the printed instructions to use. I do like looking up patterns to make sure there aren't any errata's for the pattern. 

My head model here to show you how it looks being worn~

Ribbing at the knit and stockinette stitching on the hood, with ribbing around the face edge of the hood too.

The back top has you knit a triangle shape.

Here is is without the model after I blocked it.

Close up up stitching. The yarn was a denim color with some variation to it.

She didn't expect to get it back finished for months, but I got it done quickly and she probably even had a chance to wear it a few times, since we had some colder and windy days. She gave me a handmade basket.

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emPower Lace Knit Cowl

I saw this emPower Lace Knit Cowl on Ravelry not long ago and I liked how it looked and that it didn't use too much yarn, so I downloaded the pattern and got to knitting it in the evenings while watching Netflix or Amazon Prime movies. It was a nice cowl to knit (knits flat) and then I blocked it and seamed it together at the ends to form a cowl.

I used Patton's Solo Soufflé yarn which is 80% acrylic and 20% nylon and has a bit of a fuzzy mohair quality to it. I had 2 skeins and used one entirely and some of the second skein. As you can see using a fuzzier yarn gives the cowl a softer look than the yarn used in the photo of the pattern (last photo below).

This is how it looks worn on a model. Photo courtesy of Ravelry.

I will either sell or donate this cowl as I have more than I can use and have others patterns that I want to knit. 

I am about half way done knitting a different scarf right now. I have been knitting on my current scarf 2-4 hours each evening for almost 2 weeks now. Knitting takes a ton of hours to complete anything, especially using thinner yarn; my current scarf is being knit with fingering yarn (which is the second thinnest yarn with lace weight being the thinnest yarn). So pricing knit items is quite a challenge to do because of the enormous amount of time involved and because yarn is quite expensive when you use the better quality yarns. Yarn skeins can cost $10 to over a $100 a skein for good quality yarn that is made of wool and blends. And skeins vary in weight and yardage depending on the type of yarn used. So knitting and crochet is not a cheap hobby, but it can be relaxing and good therapy. 

You can of course purchase cheaper acrylic yarn at hobby stores for less money and some of that yarn can be quite nice too, while others never feel or look as good as better quality yarn does. Even knitting with the cheapest yarn will still take hours and hours to complete a project, so unless I am knitting a baby blanket or baby garment that I don't want to invest a lot of money in, especially when a baby grows faster than the time it took to knit the item, I will use a less expensive yarn that doesn't itch for a baby or a child.

I know all you knitters understand. :0)

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Blue Dew Drop Knit Cowl

My friend Tara gave me some yarn recently and I was drawn to the beautiful blue color of this yarn. I decided to knit a cowl and thought the Dew Drop Cowl would work for this yarn. It's an easy pattern to knit. I had an earlier version of this pattern and it was a long knit. There is an updated version in a shorter length now too.

Wrapped around a few times.

Wrapped twice around.

Close-up.

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Knit Neck Warmer

I knit this neck warmer for my son using a 100% merino wool which is soft and doesn't itch like most wool does. He will be visiting at the end of January, so this should help to keep his neck warm and it's easy to just pop on too. This is a free pattern that also doubles as a headband to keep your ears warm too. The pattern is called Easy Neckwarmer Headband by Jessica Bolof and is on Ravelry.

The yarn is variegated in browns with green.

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Another Arm Knit Cowl

I knit another cowl with the arm knitting method. This one I cast on 6 stitches instead of 10 that I did for my first arm knit cowl. I used a skein of yarn I already had for this one.

Oh you can see a bit of snow at the top of the cowl.

Close view.

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