Honey Cowl from Cream City Yarn - DONE!

I admit, it’s takes a bit of effort to get enthusiastic about a wool cowl in the dead of August, but the color and texture of this project help my excitement along.  Madelinetosh makes some exquisite yarn!

I confess, I never quite know how to wear cowls.  I’ve got a full selection of scarf ties in my repertoire, and a wardrobe of shawl pins, but cowls always just sort of sit there.  I like the simplicity of them, I like that I’m not forever swiping shawl or scarf tails out of my way, and they always look very cozy.  

It’s just that I’m always convinced the person looking at me is waiting for the thing to open up further and swallow my face.  

I ought to be ashamed of myself--that’s no way to think of a perfectly respectable swath of wool.  Sheep are not a predatory species.

It’s too early in the season to give this a test run, and I may need to consult the daughter for styling tips, but I’m confident we’ll be good friends.  I’ve yet to meet a knitted accessory I didn’t like.

Thanks to all the lovely folks who showed up for copies of HOMEFRONT HERO at Stitches Midwest yesterday.  50 books gone in 20 minutes--that was the most fun I've had in a long time!  And of course, I did a little shopping afterward....

Next up?  Another publishing industry knitter shares her life & yarn adventures.

Honey Cowl from Cream City Yarn - Day 3

The progress panacea...

Nothing soothes like progress.  It feels lovely to be halfway done with this cowl as life settles down a bit.  I never cease to be amazed at how life hands me the knitting project I need exactly when I need it.  Some of my more demanding projects would have given me fits right now, and this is perfect.  Interesting, but not taxing.  Blissful to touch, easy to work with, pleasing to look at...everything I want in “therapy knitting.”

I have one spot where I’m wondering if I’ve done it right, or if it’s an unavoidable fact of knitting patterns in the round.  While there’s no technical seam, it’s clearly visible where my rounds end.  My guess is that given the stitch pattern alternates every row, there’s no way to avoid this line.  Have any of you had this experience?

A short detour for a little promotion:

If you’ll be attending the upcoming Stitches Midwest, the lovely folks at Ohio’s Knitter’s Mercantile (you’ll be meeting them in a future episode) will be hosting a giveaway of my World War I knitting novel, HOMEFRONT HERO.  Free copies of the book will be available at noon Saturday August 11 to the first 50 guests at the Knitter’s Mercantile booth.  Free books at a yarn show?  Sounds like heaven to me.  Come by and say hello.

Honey Cowl from Cream City Yarn - Day 2

“You knit to save your life.”  Ann Hood, The Knitting Circle

Non-knitters would find this statement hyperbole, but we know better.  

There are days--weeks, months, even entire years--where the act of knitting becomes the only candle holding the darkness at bay.  Times where everything else feels too complex, too ineffectual, too demanding...and we hide behind our needles.

I have known the life-and-death moments of knitting, mostly done on cold vinyl hospital chairs and scratchy “family conference room” couches.  I have also known the less dire curveballs of life, the ones that pummel you with random frequency.  Both bring hours where I must knit, because it’s all I can do.

These are the places were the graces of texture and rhythm show their kind faces.  The softness of yarn slides between my fingers to accomplish small beauties when everything else in my day feels sharp and tangled.  

Oh, how I have loved my knitting these last few days.  I am not knitting to save my life (or someone else’s), thank goodness,  but our family is facing yet another medical challenge, and I am knitting to find my footing.  Again.  Weaving the three-ply strand of yarn and prayer and the tiniest of accomplishments so that row by row, peace is restored.

I know you know what I mean.

Honey Cowl from Cream City Yarn - Day 1

A lovely start...

Products--and designers--usually earn their fine reputations for a reason.  Being a long-time knitter, I’d come across the Madelinetosh name more than once.  As such, I was giddy when the fine folks at Cream City Yarn gave me a skein of Madelinetosh ToshDK--I chose the color “Margeaux” but I love all their color names--with which to knit up the Honey Cowl pattern.  

Ann Maria’s deceptively simple pattern lets the fiber do the talking, but gives it something really interesting to say.  Texture is the mother tongue of knitters, it speaks directly to the soul.  Still, I like a piece to be functional--too much pizzaz, and I end up wondering if I’m wearing the scarf or if the scarf is wearing me.  This one hits the right balance.

I chose the shorter option--I’ve a closet-full of long, draping scarves.  This pattern gives you a satisfying menu of long, short, or two versions of “inbetween.”   Considering this pattern would lend itself to a multitude of yarns, that’s a smart value.

I found myself racing impatiently through the cast-on and first four rows of stockinette so that I could get to the honeycomb pattern.  Well, wouldn’t you?