Sunday, November 16, 2014

Sunday Stitches

I've completed a couple knitting projects lately, and while the two patterns are very different, I really loved working up both of them and feel they each have their merits.

First there was the Petal Cowl by Xandy Peters. This was an impulsive cast on, which is rather rare for me. I'm usually a fairly monogamous knitter, and I like to spend hours planning what my next project should be. But one day last month, I saw Xandy's Fox Paws pattern on the Ravelry home page and went browsing her designs. I was intrigued by the dramatic waves in these two patterns, and I knew I had several color-changing yarns in my stash that would be ideal.

Petal Cowl

So I immediately dug out my Lang Mille Colori Socks & Lace yarn and cast on. The technique employed to create those extreme stripes is a little fiddly, but well worth the effort. For each pattern repeat, you increase from 300 stitches up to 550 in one round and then decrease back to 300 again a few rounds later. The pattern was definitely involved enough to keep me interested, but not so difficult as to be intimidating.

Petal Cowl

Then I had a doctor's appointment this past week and knew from past experience there was likely to be some hardcore waiting in my future. With the epic scarf becoming more and more epic by the day, it's also becoming less and less portable. So I needed a small, mindless project to make me feel productive in the waiting room. After seeing a couple of friends make the Sockhead Hat by Kelly McClure, I knew it would fit the bill nicely. Not to mention, I have sock yarn coming out my ears.

Sockhead

I chose a hank of yarn I got at last month's Yarn Crawl - Two If By Hand's MCN High Twist in the colorway Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock (many of their colorways are Big-Bang-Theory-themed). I opted to use a long-tail tubular cast-on, as demonstrated by Ysolda Teague, rather than the regular long tail method. I just like the way a tubular cast-on looks with ribbing; it's a personal preference. Other than that, I remained faithful to the pattern. This hat was exactly what the doctor ordered - repetitive ribbing followed by simple stockinette stitch. It's the perfect pattern to stick in your bag for an unknown amount of waiting room time.

Sockhead

8 comments:

  1. Cool projects! I just cast on some sock yarn yesterday to make a big fluffy shawl :)

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    1. I love shawls made from sock yarn! Perhaps because I have far too much sock yarn and far too many socks already. :)

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  2. Wow, Carissa! Both of these projects are worthy of your time. The cowl is very impressive in design and the colors that you chose. The yarn for the hat is awesome. Oh, you are so productive!

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    1. Sadly, not as productive as I would like. I have so many project ideas swimming around in my head and only time to execute a small fraction of them! :(

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  3. I love how the petal cowl came out. I'm going to add that pattern to my 'to do' list :)

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    1. I highly recommend it! Interesting and challenging without being frustratingly difficult.

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  4. Very nice! That cowl is so pretty and delicate.

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    1. Thanks, Jenny! It's really soft and warm too!

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