Last and First

Last finished object of 2010: Honey Cowl the Fifth

Pattern: Honey Cowl
Yarn: Malabrigo in Loro Barranqueno
Needle: US 7 - 4.5mm

My friends Jen and Joey ended up stranded in New York until New Year's Day, so they came and stayed with us for a while. Joey ended up falling in love with the yarn that I used, and as I was, um, not as enthusiastic, I gave the cowl to him. So. I guess this means I will be making another darned cowl for myself.

It was also my first project with my new Addi Clicks. The tips on the new lace click set are pretty darned sharp. I didn't notice much difference between the tips on these and the tips on my Knit Picks set, so they seem to have solved the bluntness issue.

And, my first finished object of 2011: Cynthia's Cowl

Pattern: improvised
Yarn: Berocco Campus
Needle: US 10.5 - 6.5mm

I ended up tossing every single pattern I'd found for this yarn, as the colors and texture of the yarn ended up competing with the patterns themselves. I also started out with a US 13 - 9mm needle and it just wasn't good. So I swatched about 50 million different patterns, and finally ended up doing exactly what I did for Ryan's Very Manly Cowl, just with bigger yarn.

Please excuse the bad hair. It's the first day after Christmas break, I haven't had coffee yet, and... yeah. Well, I made an ass of myself over on Leonora's blog this morning, so why not do the same on mine? 

The cowl itself is large enough to wrap twice and/or pull up over the head for a hood. The yarn is nice, soft enough to sit against my sensitive skin, and pretty good on Bruce's. Of course, we were wearing it in our VERY overheated apartment, so it probably isn't the best representation of the garment. Also, I hadn't blocked it yet. I suppose I would look like an idiot if I put the cowl on and stuck my head out an open window to test its warmth. Not that looking like an idiot is anything new this morning.

The yarn itself is a wool/acrylic/alpaca blend. It has a thick and thin texture, going from a DK weight yarn to a super ultra bulky. As I mentioned, I tried a pretty huge range of stitch patterns in it on swatches, and the two that looked good were garter and stockinette. I didn't find it too splitty at all, although in the super ultra bulky parts, it wasn't really twisted at all, and the fibers were easily tangled, which necessitated paying closer attention to what I was doing. On a size 13 needle, the stitches looked... well... cruddy. The DK portions looked awful, and I don't think any amount of blocking would have saved them. I went down to an 11, and it just didn't work too well for me, so I swatched again with a 10.5 and that was fabulous.

Anyhoo, off to work on Cynthia's hat and mittens. I'm having fun, and the Campus is a nice yarn to work with.