winter Archives - Page 2 of 2

The Owls sweater has been in my queue since 2008 and honestly, I don’t know why it’s taken me this long to get around to knitting it. It’s fantastic! The fact that there are 6,000 Owls projects on Ravelry speaks volumes to the popularity and knit-ability of this sweater – it’s as if as a knitting blogger, I’m obligated to make this sweater!

I splurged and bought this Rowan Cocoon yarn waaaaay back in June when I took a trip out to Webs with the knitting gals. Ah Rowan, how do you always succeed at making crave-worthy yarn? I can tell that this merino wool/mohair blend is going to be warm and snuggly to wear, but boy does the fuzz fly when knitting the sweater. I can see it floating in the air around me and the amount of fibers that stick to me looks as if I had a cat sitting on my lap.

Right now I’m around the underarm and will start the dip for the yoke soon. I can’t wait to get to those owls and start knitting the cabled yoke.

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Pattern: Odessa Hat by Grumperina

Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashsoft DK

Beads: Size 6 seed beads from Webs Beads

Needles: US 4 and 6 16″ circs

Size: OS

I wanted to love this hat, but the truth is, I just can’t. Don’t get me wrong, I loved knitting it and discovered that knitting with beads is addictive and fun (I want everything to have beads in it now!). I had such high hopes for it because it looked so pretty on my needles as I kept knitting the swirling stockinette pattern. But I’m not a beanie girl, have never been a beanie girl, and so I don’t like how it looks on my head. I deliberately posted these three pictures on the blog because they don’t really give a full look as to how the hat looks head-on. But I wanted to show how the hat turned out and say that it’s a great pattern, just not for me.

(This was the only straight-on picture that looked ok)
Every project is a learning experience. You learn what you did wrong so that you can improve on it next time in a new project. Sometimes you also learn what works and doesn’t work for you – case in point this hat. I learned that I like loose fitting hats, pretty much of the tam or beret variety, and that thinking back, I never owned a single beanie that I liked. It’s that whole hair-smooshing thing I think, as silly as that sounds. And light, neutral colors wash me out. I need some bright colors going on for my hats!

Oh well. Knitting, like any other craft, is full of mishaps. I used to get upset when something didn’t turn out right, but now I just use it as a point of reference going forward, and learn not to make that mistake again. No more beanies for me.