Pompom Cowl Pattern

This is a pattern for a beginner knitter, who hates purling. It is an opportunity to learn how to work in the round, knit 2 together, make button holes, make a braid, and make funny fuzzy pompoms.

Size
One size fits all, but it should be very easy to alter both width and length of the cowl simply by casting on more or less stitches, and adding or reducing rounds for different widths. If you are making size adjustment make sure that you add or reduce an even number of holes and that the holes are evenly spread throughout the length, also make sure to keep 2 holes close together for the front of the cowl.

Materials
1 Skein Lion Brand Wool-Ease thick and quick in Charcoal
Smaller amounts of Fisherman and Claret (for the braid and pompoms)

Notions
8mm 24" circular needles
Tapestry needle
Pompom rings or piece of cardboard
small scissors

Gauge
Approximately 10 stitches to 4in/10cm in stocking stitch, knit in the round.

Notes (linked to the amazing knittinghelp.com tutorial videos)
CO - Cast on
BO - Bind off
K2tog - Knit 2 together
YO - Yarn Over. Just pass the yarn over the needle, trust me.

Pattern
CO 67 stitches. Join to work in the round making sure not to twist.
Rnd 1-10: K
Holes rnd: k2tog, yo, k2, [k2tog, yo, k7] 7 times
Rnd 12-21: K
BO knitwise.

Finishing
Darn in ends neatly to finish. No need to press, the cowl will curl, and we want it to! :)
Make a braid from 3 or 6 strands the length that is required to wrap around your neck plus about 1.5 feet for tying.
Make 2 extra large Pompoms (how? use a cardboard or your fingers if you don't have a fancy pompom maker...) making sure not to cut the tying yarn short yet.
Thread the braid through the holes in the cowl, making sure that it pops out of the cowl through the two front holes (the two adjacent ones)
Use the pompoms tying yarn to thread through the ends of the braid and cut them. This way the braids' ends are hidden inside the pompoms. Once you do this, you will have a hard time taking the braid out of the holes! So make sure everything is in place.

Thoughts about Socks

How do I even begin about socks? Let me see.

Me, I have a short little span of attention, I do. I get distracted by shiny objects more often than I'd care to admit. You may even think that knitting is not necessarily the best choice in crafts for me. And to be completely truthful, I think you'd be right. However, I'm also a gear-a-holic, a book-a-holic, and to the extreme discomfort of my husband, a needle-a-holic. While these are my pet addictions, the seriously major one, the mother of all addictions, the pet that turned mammoth, the very one that might just qualify me for a nice 50% Alpaca-50% Merino-50% Silk-50% Cashmere, hand dyed, hand spun, hand knitted, sportweight straight jacket is being a yarn-a-holic (And now I will sing an ode to yarn. Yummy, plush, soft, sweet, sleek, smooth, warm, fuzzy, beautiful yarn... grrr... uhm... what was I talking about? oh. Socks. I'll be getting to that in a sec. Bare with me.)

So anyway. Knitting. Not the best choice for someone like me. I get distracted, as I mentioned.

Patterns are really like shiny objects. And I am like a magpie. I can browse through the innumerable amount of knitting books that I own and go "ooh! I wanna make that! I should! I should! ooh!!! that! I wanna make that! oh! or that! oooooooh!!! that!" You should see the size of my queue. It's disgusting.

Yarn stores are even worse. "ooooooh!! I want that yarn! ooh ooh! that yarn! I swear I will knit with it! I swear! ooooh! I promise I won't just lie in it naked and purr! I have just the pattern for it. oooooh!!!!!!! that!"

It's hopeless really.

And then when I finally manage to climb out of the huge huge pile of yarn, and books, and patterns, and needles, and start to actually knit something. That's when I get completely impatient. "weeeelll??? knit knit knit knit... purl purl purl purl... "

And then it's done, and I'm pleased with it, and everything is great??
HA! think again!

I finish the back, the front, and one sleeve. And get all "oooh! I really should be knitting that hat!" and I start on the hat. And just as I come to finishing it, it's "oooh! and these socks! they look so awesome! (I really should go and get some yarn for it...)" and so I knit one sock. And you know what? it does look awesome. But to knit the other one is so boring. Ugh.

So I have quite a few orphaned bootees at home, and a few orphaned socks. And people who see them say "wow, that's beautiful, where's the other one?" and I say "there isn't another one" and then they say "did you lose it?"

And not for one moment are they able to grasp the concept of a single shoe. Or a single sock. That never ever had a siser. Never ever. Not for one moment.

And that my brothers and sisters is the problem with Tech-no-lo-gee. People do not appreciate the value that there is in just one sock. Or mitten. Or bootee. Or whatever it is that normally comes in pairs. They just assume. They do not appreciate the patience and concentration it takes to create the one. They simply take it for granted that there are two of them.

And I say: PAH!
I say PAH! PAH! and "ooh!!!! c-ute soaker!!!!!!"

Oh oh oh what have I done!!

[poking messy head out of an entangled mess of yarn ends, spitting fiber out of mouth, pulling an odd piece of straw out of ear and looking frantically around]
I left a comment on someone else's blog, with a link here!
Someone might actually come visit. And this place is so barren, you'd almost expect to see them rolling dried thorn bushes (can't even get my vocabulary straight for the potential visitors! Arrgh!!)

I know how this will end. I know. I will just stand there trying to assume a nonchalant position, leaning casually against a wall. When BAM! The whole thing falls down on me and a quartet of animated songbirds flies around my head.


I rather do what many a living predecessor o'mine did, which got me to where I am today:
Run and hide! RUN and HIDE!!! (Any relation to Rincewind? Hmm. I wonder...)
Oo! GotTa gO! ADioS!!!

Cozy Boatneck Sweater

The pattern suggests using

• Blue Sky Alpaca Sport Weight (100% Alpaca, 110 yards/50grams) 1 skein each in Red #511, Turquoise #532, Paprika #531, Chartreuse #527, Purple #529 and Amber #519)
• US size 6 (4.00mm) and size 3 (3.25mm) needles. with a gauge of 5 stitches per inch on the size 6 needles.

I'm using US size 7 needles (4.5mm) and Lion Brand Cotton Ease in Terracotta, Lake, Taupe, Lime, Charcoal and Maize accordingly.

Wish me luck! :)

===Update===

Unraveled and changed to Pattons Classic Wool Merino.

===Update===

This sweater is zzzooming out of my hands!
I'm not spending too much time knitting, and I've already finished the back and some of the front. It's a matter of days.

Happppy!

I really loved picking the colours. It took me ages to find the combination I liked, and eventually I am not terribly pleased with the sequence I decided on (I mean, I think that the order of the stripes is not optimal, but the colours are really excellent) anyway, I decided to live with it and not fret over it. (Did I mention how much I hate unraveling?)

Youngling is sleeping, so I can go on knittin'!

---

The life and time of my Cozy Boatneck Sweater from Itty-Bitty-Nursery by Susan B. Anderson

The Daily Haiku Log

In search for baby.
One hand short and one hand long.
Hate unravelling.

We are raw-foodists
We just returned from Outback
We're funny that way.

Children are so great.
But who gets to knit at all??
Or sleep, honestly.

Big stash is normal
Every knitter has one, right?
No place to sleep though :/

Something I'm good at
If I need to name just one
Procrastination

Only circulars
At least they are not alone
When I'm losing them..

Bought me a new book
With many coloured patterns
Instantly lent it. :(

Bought me some new yarn
Then got into Ravelry
Shame. Can't knit and type.

A loving mama
The sweet life in pajama
Nitsan. Knits nits nuts. :-|