Three on Thursday

I'm joining Carole for Three on Thursday and I have three knitting updates for you.  My apologies in advance if the photos are blurry.  I can't tell.  At the moment, everything in my world is blurry.  That never-ending, cold-like virus I've had is still hanging on and now it's gone into my eye.  My eye and eyelashes are full of antibiotic ointment which makes it tricky to see details.  

You'll also need to excuse the packing boxes, weird furniture placement and general disarray in every photo taken for the next month or so.  Did I mention we are moving?  Yeah, I'm still in slight denial about it.

Fable Fur Cowls

Luckily the Fable Fur cowls I've been knitting are garter stitch on giant needles.  I could practically knit them in my sleep.  Which it sort of feels like I'm doing.  The gray one on the bottom is Kuma, the middle is knit with Bjern and the top is Mishka.  Kuma is my favorite.  I feel like it looks the most like real fur.  I thought I'd prefer Bjern over Mishka but it turns out, I like Mishka better.  

And speaking of Mishka, have you seen the free teddy bear pattern Knit Picks is offering to go along with their Fable Fur yarn?  It is Adorable!  And did I mention, it's free!?!

Test knitting the Showl Cowl for Chris Knits with yarn from Forbidden Fiber Co.

Next up is the test knitting cowl I knit for Chris Knits.  I ended up making the medium size with an extra garter ridge row.  I really wanted to knit the largest version but the skein of yarn was getting smaller and smaller and I am the Queen of Denial.  Just like I'm happily denying our upcoming move, I was denying how quickly the cowl had begun to eat up yarn.  I finally calculated how much yarn each row was taking and had to face facts; I didn't have enough.

I'm hoping to get the cowl blocked over the next couple of days and show you a better photo of it next week. But even unblocked, I think it looks great!  

I can't wait for Chris to put this pattern out into the world.  I think you'll enjoy knitting it.  It's super simple to knit but you never get bored.  Even with the longer rows you don't have a chance to get bored.  You only knit a few rows of one stitch before it changes to something else.  And the lace sections are simple too.  The pattern is easily remembered, yet it changes every few rows.  Super simple, yet it keeps you on your toes.  Definitely my kind of design!

I'm so thankful Chris offered me the opportunity to knit this wonderful cowl and gifted me the yarn.  I'm hesitant to include a link to the yarn shop because I don't trust myself not to shop and did I mention we're moving soon?  I'm supposed to be getting rid of yarn, not collecting more.

The Martha Shawl

And last, my most recent project.  I'm calling it Martha.  I'd planned to knit a simple but lacy shawl design with only Sunset, the pink/yellow yarn, but I didn't like the way the yarn played with the lace.  It was a little too busy for my taste.

Long ago I knit a loooong triangular scarf from a pattern whose name started with a "B."  Sadly, the shape and the "B" are all I can remember about it.  Although I don't know the design's name, I liked the result and have knit my own made-up version numerous times since.  Each one has been knit slightly different.  

This time around, I'm knitting (Actually knitting every row.  Yay! No purling!) two rows of the not-so-solid, solid black (Carbon from Knitted Wit) and two rows of Sunset from Dying for Art (KnittersKnacks on Facebook.)  Each first row of the black is an increase row.  It couldn't be simpler.  Four rows repeated over and over and over until it's long enough and/or you run out of yarn.  If you're interested in the details, they are:

The Martha Shawl

Using 2 colors of similar weight yarn and needles to obtain a pleasing gauge,

Cast on 3 stitches
Row 1:  Using color A, K1, Kfb, K1
Row 2:  Knit across
Row 3:  Without cutting yarn, switch to color B and knit across
Row 4:  Knit across

Row 5:  With Color A, K1, Kfb, knit across
Row 6:  Knit across
Row 7:  With Color B, knit across
Row 8:  Knit across

Repeat rows 5 - 8 until you run out of yarn or reach the desired length.

I have knit a version of this in the past where I used three colors and it looked great but keeping up with the increase rows wasn't a mindless thing.  You may have noticed - I like mindless.

On The Needles

Test knitting a cowl for Chris Knits

Enjoying my morning coffee and a little outdoor knitting before I head into work this afternoon.  Trying to cram in as much knitting time as I can now because it's Halloween Haunt and the hours are long.  I won't get much knitting done over the weekend.

Current Cowl

I'm pretty psyched over here.  Chris from ChrisKnitsSews asked me to test knit her new cowl/showl pattern.  Have you ever heard the term showl?  I hadn't heard it used before I began reading about Chris's adventures designing her cowl but this week I've seen multiple people mention it.  In any event, in case you are in the dark like I was, a showl is a cross between a cowl and a shawl.  In other words, it's a cowl, but more shawl sized.  Cowl + shawl = showl.  Brilliant!

Anyway....

I'm test knitting Chris's newest showl design and it's going very well.

Current Cowl knit with Eucalyptus Leaves

The knitting is going much better than my photo taking, that's for sure!  With my work schedule, photos are either taken at 3:00 a.m. or or outdoors, in the bright, noon sun.  You're just going to have to take my word for it that the yarn I'm using is a gorgeous pale grayish green.

You can see Chris's finished version here.  Chris asked me to test knit the smallest size (there's a small, medium & large) but it looks like I'll have enough yarn so I'm going to knit the large one.  Or the medium, if the yarn doesn't hold out.  But I think it will.

Anyway, the pattern....  The smallest version is cowl sized and called Current Cowl.  The largest is definitely shawl sized and is therefore the Shoulder Showl.  The pattern isn't for sale yet but keep your eyes peeled for it.  You won't want to miss it.  I know I'll be knitting multiples.

The design is super simple to knit yet never boring.  You're constantly changing stitch patterns, yet the patterns repeat so it's easily remembered.  The cowl starts off being knit flat then gets joined in the round after a while.  By starting off flat, you get a sort of v-neck shape so that the finished showl doesn't bunch up weirdly around your neck.  I love patterns that incorporate this feature.

So yes, I'm loving knitting the cowl/showl.

And then there's the yarn.  Oh! My! Goodness!  I'm in SO much trouble!  I'm supposed to be using up/getting rid of/not buying any more yarn because we'll be moving soon and my yarn stash already requires it's own oversized moving van.  Then Chris tells me that if I test knit the pattern, she'll supply the yarn.  And she tells me to go to Forbidden Fiber Co. to pick out a skein.

Like there's a chance in Hell I could pick just one.  I think there are only two skeins on the whole website I didn't drool over.  I made Chris pick for me.  She picked Eucalyptus Leaves.

Eucalyptus Leaves Fortitude from Forbidden Yarn Co.

And I love it.  The skein I received isn't anywhere near as variegated as the photo shows, but for this project, I'm glad of it.  The yarn is by no means a solid green, but from looking at the photo I'd have expected it to be stripey or spotty.  It's not.  It's simply lovely.  It's a superwash merino, delightfully soft and has great stitch definition.  It also arrived super fast, which is always a good thing.

And did you see all the colors the yarn comes in?  I am in SO much trouble!  I should just go ahead and reserve a second moving van now.

And,

pumpkin stitch marker

The yarn came with The cutest little pumpkin stitch marker.  I just want to knit All the fall things with this little pumpkin's help.