Maverick Cowl from Lucky Ewe Yarn - Day 5

Deja blue...

Back to brilliant blue! The final burst of color means I’m in the last two sections of this cowl.  In a clever detail, the K2TOG of the first smaller stripe gets swapped out for SSK so that the slant goes the other direction. This, to me, is the brilliant thing about knitting—there are endless variations built from just simple stitches. Color and texture give us an infinite playground to make all kinds of beauty.

And I could use a playground this week. I’m swamped with work, which means I spend way to many of my waking hours staring at (or making) words on a screen. The tactile soothing of knitting always has been my favorite antidote to work stress. I think it is why so many writers and knitters. We need something physical, something without words, to cleanse our mental palates. Nothing does that like knitting for me.

Just one more color change—back to the silver-grey—and this lovely piece from Lucky Ewe Yarn will be done. I can hardly wait.

PS: If you’re a reader/writer and a knitter, click on over to my Facebook page, where we’ve been having a bit of fun with shawls and book covers.

Maverick Cowl from Lucky Ewe Yarn - Day 4

An ode to stockinette...

Stockinette.

It doesn’t get enough respect, does it? Stockinette is the foundation of most knitting, second only to garter—only if you ask non-knitters what knitting looks like, they’ll point to the stockinette of their sweater rather than any garter stitch item. If the word “knitting” had a visual definition, it’d be stockinette (even though most non-knitters have never heard the term).

Twelve rounds of stockinette may sound boring—it is over 2,600 repetitions of the very same stitch, after all—but it’s not. Given the right circumstances, it can be downright soothing. The long meeting I had this week is a new group to me, the one where I requested to bring my knitting if they wanted me to join. Three hours in one hotel conference chair is a challenge for this middle-aged gal, even with interesting presentations. 

I smiled when one of the other members of the group asked “Got your knitting?” as I walked into the room. “Absolutely,” I smiled back.  He wasn’t challenging, he was curious. And, as I sat in the group actively participating, offering comments and barely even looking down as I stitched, I think he got it.

I was indeed grateful for the occupation of simple stockinette during that session. I could focus. I could pay close attention, my mind not wandering the way it tends to. I could enjoy the long stretch of time that might have taxed me otherwise. And, when the meeting was over, I had accomplished the twelve rounds of soothing, simple stockinette that offer counterpoint to the bright and bold blue that comes next.

If only life’s soothing seasons and bold seasons alternated each other with such order and enjoyment.

Maverick Cowl from Lucky Ewe Yarn - Day 3

Color and shine...

Another reader mentioned the beautiful sheen on this yarn. Merino is a lovely fiber, but when you add the touch of silk this fiber has you get this marvelous shimmer that works beautifully on colors like blue and gray. It makes the blue look more like Caribbean waters and the grey look more like silver. And oh, the softness…

While it’s not apparent on this circular needle right now, this is going to be a cowl of a nice, generous length. Those are always my favorite. The ones that wrap once around never quite seem to fall right around my neck—they always look the wrong size (even though cowls are “one size fits all”).

Having the lacework double back on itself by swapping out the K2TOG to SSK creates a clever chevron pattern that draws attention nicely to the center of the piece. It also adds a nice “halfway” benchmark that lets me know I’m on track to finish in time. 

I think this could make a lovely school or team colors gift for someone. It’s not quite as obvious as straight block stripes, but still makes the bold color combo statement a collegiate or sports fan would appreciate. This one, however, I’m keeping for myself.

Maverick Cowl from Lucky Ewe Yarn - Day 2

Have I got the blues?

What a stunning blue this is.  I’ve been wracking my brain for what to call the color—Maverick’s label of “Wink” doesn’t really communicate the hue. It’s too deep for turquoise, too light for royal. Then I thought, “There’s got to be an app for that.”

Turns out, there sort of is. And what better place to turn for color identification than the good folks at Crayola?  Near as I can tell, this is "Pacific Blue." Which makes sense, because it strikes me as the color I think water is when viewed from a Caribbean beach. Not that I know from personal experience (a future DestiKNITion, maybe? Anyone have a tropical yarn shop to suggest I visit?)

This is the web, so maybe there’s help there. If you look it up on the internet HTML color chart, my guess is this is HEX#006699. Not as romantic as Pacific Blue, but perhaps more accurate.  Which could be useful, because like many blues and greens, the camera has a tough time accurately capturing the beauty of this hue.  

Whatever it is, it’s one of those yarns that catches people’s eye.  They stop and ask, what are you knitting? I love that. I’ll happily stop whatever I’m doing to tell them about the project and the fiber.  Knitters are like that. We love to share.

This pattern’s clever simplicity makes for great spectator knitting. I can go whole rows of knit stitch without ever once looking down (not quite as true on the YOK2TOG rows, but close). I took it to an outdoor concert yesterday and enjoyed myself immensely. I’ve got a book group and two long meetings coming up this week—needles at the ready!

Maverick Cowl from Lucky Ewe Yarn - Day 1

What's in a name...

If you’re of “a certain age”, it’s hard not to think of James Garner when you hear the name Maverick.  The dashing gambler brothers graced the television screens from the late 50s to early 60s and many more years in reruns. Me, I more associate the name with Mel Gibson’s 1994 movie resurrection of the moniker alongside Jodie Foster (in which James Garner also appeared).

The “real” Maverick—for those of us who don’t call Texas home—was Samuel Augustus Maverick. This legendary Texan lawyer, politician, land baron was also a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. His rebellious personality is where we derive the term “maverick.”

Conversely, this cowl is based on how two hues get along, rather than clash. Choose a pair of dramatically complimenting colors to make the most of this pattern. I’ve got two lovely solids in the rich colors that mark Maverick Fiber Company yarns, but you could also pair a heathered yarn or subtly variegated yarn with another solid for a different look. Personally, I favor a neutral paired with a bold hue for a project like this, but you can do just about anything that tickles your fancy.

It’s a generous loop that you’re casting on lengthwise, so this is going to be a nice, stretchy cowl. I used the long-tail cast on to keep that elasticity. Not wanting to run out of tail for all those 220 stitches, I used my favorite “inch per stitch” allowance and it was spot on. I chose to put my neutral color—gray in this case—on the outside so those texture stripes would be in the rich blue. This yarn feels so nice between my fingers, I can’t wait to add that gorgeous blue in the next section!