Not Quite What I Expected... The Howl Cowl?

Okay, so a few weeks ago I posted a pattern for a cowl. It was supposed to be a Christmas present for my sister. Since I had a bit of wool left and nothing to do with it, after I posted the pattern, I went back to the original cowl and knitted a bit more, so it was several inches wider than before.

Did my sister like it? Well... she did find a use for it. Meet Paco, the cowl-wearin' boxer.

Christmas Knitting 2013

The Christmas knitting project continues. The tally so far: four hats, two cowls, a pair of wrist warmers and a pair of socks, plus a pair of convertible mitts that's not yet finished. The clock ticks...

It's at times like this that I always think of the story of the princess whose brother were turned into swans. She had to make a shirt for each one in order to turn them back into humans, but when the time came, she was a sleeve short, so her youngest brother retained a swan wing for the rest of his life.

I am nonetheless hopeful of getting the last part of the mittens done. I'm lining the mitt section of these with an extra fleece inner layer, which will I hope make them very toasty and cosy for my winter bike-riding sweetie. At least I know he'll appreciate it, although he may not fully understand the extent of my knitting devotion. I actually lost one of the socks I had already finished (during a fire alarm at the college... long story), and I figured there was nothing else to do but reknit it.

I may post some info about a few of these hats, as I used some excellent patterns from Ravelery... but for  now, I'm off to complete a host of other tasks.

Winter is Coming Cowl

This one's destined to be another Christmas present, but for the moment my mom is modelling it. Chain mail's chilly north of the Wall, but this stylish, soft wool cowl has a gentle feel on chapped cheeks. It's done in a seed stitch, and wraps twice around the neck; you can bring it up over your ears if you like.

I used one-and-a-quarter 100-gram skeins of Mirasol Ushya in Platinum Grey (colour #1701), which is 98% Merino and 2% Polyamide, and also helps support schools in Peru. (I think I have enough left over to make a hat to go with it.) The pattern, which I made up, is very easy; feel free to cast on more stitches, as long as the total is an uneven number, or to make it wider.

Winter Is Coming Cowl (free pattern)

• Using 6mm, 40-inch corded needles, loosely cast on 207 stitches.
• Join up, being careful not to twist the row.
• 1st round: K1, P1
• 2nd and following rounds: K every P stitch and vice versa.
• Round 32: Bind off loosely.

Girl's Cabled Tam with a Pom-Pom

As the yarn store clerk said to me earlier this week, the Christmas-present knitting season has begun. Since my family members don't read all my blog posts, I'm not too worried about posting a few things that will probably end up under the tree (if I don't break down and hand them out sooner).

I haven't done a lot of cabling, and I'm always surprised how much bang you get for relatively little fuss. This pattern comes from the Fall 2013 issue of KnitSimple magazine (page 30). The designer is Nitza Coto. In the magazine, it's shown in coral pink, and the suggested yarn is CHARLY by Filatura di Crosa, but I used Cascade's 100% Peruvian Highland Wool.

I added the pom-pom because it's for my 12-year-old niece and I seem to be operating under the delusion that she'll be attending a lot of skating parties with cocoa and Nutcracker premieres this winter. This was a very satisfying project that took me about four Downton Abbey episodes to knit, counting the fact that I misread the pattern and had to rip out about 15 rows of the cabling and redo it.

Technical point: in this pattern, M1 or "make one" means to wrap the yarn around the needle without knitting it. I normally would expect the abbreviation YO ("yarn over") for this move. Normally, I expect M1 to mean knitting into the front and back of a stitch, thereby increasing the count by one. In this pattern, they use KFB ("knit front & back") when they want you to do this. That's why I had to redo so many rows.

Streetknit Collects Knitting for Homeless Folks

It's quick, easy and inexpensive to knit a hat – or three – and there are people who need warm clothing on our cold winter nights. The Streetknit Project in Toronto connects the two sides of this potentially happy equation.

I was handed a skein of blue yarn at the Leslieville Farmers' Market earlier this year by a Streetknit volunteer. My task? Simply to knit something warm and drop it off at one of many participating yarn stores, like my local, the Purple Purl (1162 Queen East), the Knit Cafe (1050 Queen West), Lettuce Knit (86 Nassau) or Sew Be It Studio (2156 Yonge).

You may ask "why bother knitting when dollar stores are overflowing with cheap, warm hats and mitts?" Call me crazy, but I believe that the intention to help someone else makes its way into the garment. I even think that the act of knitting for someone else can be like a meditation or a prayer; I think it sends good vibes out into the universe. In any case, it can't hurt.

The Streetknit site has links to lots of easy free patterns for hats, scarves, mittens and (for the more ambitious) sweaters, as well as to similar organizations in other cities. (Knitting groups like this exist in many other  places beyond the links on the site, some of which have a different focus, like hats for premature babies or layettes for pregnant teens.)

I warn you, this can get addictive; I know of one Toronto woman who knits a hat every day for charity. I think I'll stop at two this year... but you never know; I have lots of yarn in my stash that's itching to be used.

Happy Hallowe'en from the Haunted Dollhouse!

Hallowe'en has come to Dollhouse Land, courtesy of the brave new world of scrapbooking stickers that are now available in every dollar store. (This is nothing like the marvel that is my cousin Laura's Hallowe'en dollhouse spread, but then she's been at it for about ten years more than me.)

Eek! A giant spider has nested in the attic window.

 This youngster is admiring the jack-o-lantern (it came from a dollar-store pack of styrofoam mini-gourds, and I drew the face on). Not sure who left the broom here.

Apparently the parents are exhausted by the onslaught of trick-or-treaters. Oh well; at least they have tea.

Unbirthday Socks

I made these for a friend and mailed them as a surprise birthday-and-a-half present, six months after her real birthday. They're Spud and Chloe "Fine", 80% wool and 20% silk, and I used about a skein and a quarter, as she has rather long feet. Apparently she likes them.