In true typical-of-me fashion, I have been wanting to join in the Yarn Along hosted by Ginny over on her blog Small Things. If you’ve been following along for any time here, you’ll remember that I did post one or two Yarn Alongs way back in the beginnings of my blog, but nothing since then. And then I totally flaked that last Wednesday was the first Wednesday of the month! But better late than never as they say.
I’ve been knitting a lot lately. I’ve made some hats and sold all of them. Now I’m working on updating my stock, but after knitting all those hats, I really needed to knit something for myself. I was recently reading through a blog, Lori Times Five, and noticed she had made the Bergen Cowl and that got me to thinking about a hat that I have that needed a cowl/scarf/neckwarmer type thingy for this fall and winter. I’ve been trying to make things that match, or at least coordinate, rather than making random pieces that I can’t wear together. So as I was reading Lori’s blog and came across her Bergen Cowl, I thought to myself “I have everything I need to make that cowl plus it will coordinate with my Conversationalist Hat”. Here’s the pic of the hat in case you are curious:
And you might recall that that Pom Pom was the only successful pom I’ve ever been able to make. So it seems fitting that this hat get a lovely new mate.
Also in true typical-to-me fashion, I got distracted while knitting the Bergen Cowl and messed up the order of the triangles. I remember the exact moment that I reversed the order. I got to the end of the row and had one extra stitch (or so I thought) so I went hunting for where I’d made my mistake. It was the first row at the start of one of the triangle patterns. I thought the mistake was at the very beginning so I ripped it out. And then started all over. And kept going. Only when I had finished that triangle pattern did I realize that I had been correct the first time around and all I had to do was knit that last stitch with the gray yarn! Once I realized that I had done a whole triangle pointed toward the wrong side, I decided that this cowl would be unique, just like me! So I made the pattern slightly different than the original pattern intended. But that’s okay. My nephews were here visiting for two weeks and I was slightly brain dead the whole time. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. I don’t think you’ll really be able to tell once it’s finished and I’m wearing it. And for what it’s worth, I don’t really mind that the pattern isn’t as written.
Details for the pattern. You can find the Bergen Cowl pattern here. It’s written by Carrie Bostick Hoge, of MadderMade fame. I used Quince and Co Lark yarn for the gray (Caspian) and Stitch Nation for the blue (I believe this yarn is discontinued. I’ve had it for some time and just recently started using it. I’m almost out of it!). I’m using the size needles that the pattern calls for because I’m not concerned about gauge on this one. I will block it once it’s finished which will hopefully be today or tomorrow.
What else? Oh, right, what I’m reading. I picked up the book The Coast of Maine at the library book sale. I’ve always had a fascination with Maine, even though I’ve never been. I love these old books. I pick them up at book sales whenever I find them. Doesn’t really matter what the subject is, as long as it’s something that interests me.
I also decided to draft my own scarf pattern. I feel like I need to start challenging myself in the knitting department again and I stumbled across this pattern, again from reading Lori Times Five. Basically you take the scarf pattern and add your own designs/motifs to it. It’s supposed to be all your favorite things knitted into the scarf. I’m not creating anything from scratch…I’m taking motifs from other patterns and putting them into this one scarf. I’m so excited. I have my graph paper ready. But it’s so hard trying to decide what I want to put in there and also what colors! The possibilities are endless. And since we are embarking on “No Spend August“, I have to wait to purchase the yarn. I’ll probably just purchase the yarn from Knit Picks anyway, but I have to save those dollars first!
And I’ve been trying to take better pictures and edit them more consistently. I’ll keep practicing both. I’m pretty happy with the way things have been turning out. Mostly now I just apply one filter to the pictures so that’s something! I used to have to adjust a lot of settings to get my pictures to turn out the way I wanted them to. Progress friends! And hopefully there will be a lot more knitting progress in August too!