Pattern: Wildhood Cowl

It is pattern time!

Earlier this winter, I did a lot of shawls. Like, a LOT of shawls. I had shawls coming out my ears. I think I knit five slightly different versions of the Swallowtail shawl.

When that was all said and done, I decided I wanted to knit something radically different. So, naturally, I decided on something for relatively the same part of the body, knit with similar yarn on similar needles.

Having looked through the cowl patterns on Ravelry and on Knitty, and not being able to find one I liked, I decided to make up my own pattern. I wanted something slightly lacy, but with enough body that it would keep my ears warm. This is what I came up with!

Unnamed Cowl (seriously, does anyone want to name this for me?)

ETA: WILDHOOD COWL! (Thanks, Naomi. It is perfect!)

Yarn: less than one skein Malabrigo lace. You could, I suppose, knit this longer and use an entire skein.

Needles/notions: I used 24" circulars in size 6 (4.0 mm.); it was a bit of a stretch at times. You could use shorter needles or DPNs easily. You will want a yarn needle or crochet hook to weave in the ends.

k2tog: knit two stitches together
kfb: knit through the front and back of a stitch.

CO 120 stitches loosely. Join, being careful not to twist.

Rows 1: Place marker at the beginning of the row, then k all
Rows 2-3: k all
Row 4: [yo, k2tog] to end of row
Rows 5-9: k all
Row 10: [k2tog, yo] to end of row
Rows 11-15: k all

Repeat rows 4-15 until the cowl is as long as you would like it to be; mine is around 15 inches. Stop at the end of row 13.

Edging:

Row 1: [k2, kfb] to end of row. You should now have 150 sts.
Rows 2-3: k all
Row 5: [yo, k2tog] to end of row.
Rows 6-10: k all.

To bind off: I used the elastic cast-off found at the end of the Swallowtail shawl pattern; make sure to cast off loosely.

This is long enough to be worn as a hood or as an abbreviated scarf-thing. It's much warmer than it looks! Enjoy, and please let me know if you find any problems with the pattern or have any questions!

(I have mostly been blogging over here of late; I promise I'll do more knitting/spinning posts soon!!)

Hello, world!

It's totally my turn to update the blog-- I've been quite remiss! To make up for it, I finally have some pictures.

I've been on a bookmaking kick for a while now (although knitting is creeping back in with the rain and the cold), so here are some book images. The one to the left is actually a bit greener than the image makes you think it is.

This was a really fun book to make-- it's multiple signatures, sewn on tapes. I'd do a tutorial on how to make them, but there are many, many tutorials on the web that would be better than mine. Unfortunately, the spine on this book has started wearing through, so I'm thinking about breaking the book down and re-doing the spine. I might use leather, but am unsure how well that would work, since I've never done it and don't quite have the right tools. Ah well, we'll see how it turns out.

Hmmmm.... more pictures!


The above is a Very Useful Book. I am a rabid paper-buyer; I am entirely addicted to PaperSource, that place of Vilest Temptation with their awesome paper. This book is where I keep small samples of almost every sheet of cover paper I buy-- book cloth goes on one side of the accordion, and patterned paper on the other. This book is small enough that I can stick it in a pocket or in my bag when I go shopping, to compare colours and weights, etc. I also really need to update it-- I'm sort of afraid that my paper collection will soon be larger than the book!

Okay, one more project-- this one was *really* fun, and it took me a hellishly long time. You'll see why:

This is the project when it's all put together. There are actually five different components to this piece: the tie, the wrap, the top book, the box, and the interior book.

You can take everything apart into separate pieces, and it's fairly easy to put everything back together. This is essentially a mock-up of the toolbox that I'm working on; I only have the bottom half of that box completed, as it's 9"x12", and has multiple compartments. This box was an exercise, essentially. I wanted to see if I could make a top-and-bottom box that fit together well-- these really, really do. I am incredibly pleased. :)

This is what the components of the box look like when everything's been taken apart. To give you an idea of scale, the small green book (on the lower left) is about half an inch tall. Interestingly, both of the books that go with the box were accidental. I had made the box and the wrap when I realize that I had about half an inch extra vertically built into the wrap. Never one to pass up an opportunity to make a book, I decided to make a small perfect-bound book to go on top of the book. The image on the cover I did with watercolors; the interior of the book is blank. The small green book actually comes from the trimmings of the larger book-- it was originally one long strip that I cut down and covered with book cloth.

So, there you have it! That's what I've been up to in the last... while. Feel free to ask me any questions that you have.

Welcome all!

Hi, all.... one of you (well, at the moment)! As the lovely Ria mentioned, I am Hedgerose-- I teach eighth grade English and, in my mythical free time, do everything I can related to fiber arts. I started with spinning, then learned to weave, make Waldorf dolls, crochet, felt, knit, and, most recently, make felt hats.

My current fiber project is to make a bunch of single, coordinating socks-- I am one of those rather unfortunate people who get sidetracked waaaaay too easily, but hopefully knitting one sock at a time will help cure that. I've also been making crocheted lace trim; I need to dye it before I put pictures up, but it's pretty awesome.

I do other crafts as well; most recently, I've been doing a lot of bookbinding (I finally learned casing in!) and spend time in front of the T.V. mindlessly making paper flowers.