I really enjoyed knitting my first Dolores Park Cowl. But this time I loved it!
I made this one for my friend Abby and used the Malabrigo Chunky recommended in the pattern. I have a few skeins of Malabrigo in my stash but this is the first time I actually knit with it and it is so soft and easy to work with. I’m so happy with the color I chose and it just knits up so nicely.
I love this cowl so much better than my first one. The pattern is great and I highly recommend it.
Last week I was away for work and one day I had free time when I was near Purdue University and decided to see if there were any local yarn stores. I discovered River Knits in downtown Lafayette, Indiana.
They had a really great selection of yarns perfectly organized by weight. The girl working in the store was really friendly. They didn’t have anything locally spun or dyed when I was there but I did find one thing I’d been looking for and one splurge.
I’ve been wanting to make another Dolores Park Cowl for a friend but wanted to knit it in the Malabrigo Chunky that the pattern recommends. However, I haven’t found it in any stores and it has mostly been sold out on my go to online yarn store, WEBS (of course now there seems to be more available but buying yarn in person is so much more fun!). But they had such a nice selection of Malabrigo and I found this skein for the cowl.
They tried to wind it at the store but it wasn’t behaving so I’ll untangle and wind it when I start my project. I might knit this up this weekend just to get in a quick fun project, but at this point it isn’t even cowl weather anymore.
I also got this Kraemer Yarns Fountain Hill Brushed Mohair.
I’ve never bought anything fuzzy before so I was excited to get something different. Fortunately, this guy behaved as it was being wound. At 560 skinny yards, it would have been a pain to do with my method. I have no idea what this will become but it’s a nice addition to my stash.
I’m glad I had some time to check out this yarn store. It had a great selection and friendly staff.
In the spirit of actually finishing some of my projects, it was time for an inventory of my current works in progress so I can really see how far I’ve come and how much knitting I’ll be doing to finish them.
Last night I decided to frog my second pair of toe up socks. I love the Mini Mochi but I think it will be best used on a different project maybe a Spectra (if only my hands could knit as quickly as my brain plans!). The only thing I really loved about this particular project was the name Our Stock Would Plummet because they were toe up. Get it?
Anyway, I have another sock project still on the needles that I will finish one day (can you sense my lack of enthusiasm for socks?). Right now, they are 25% complete.
I also have this Fishtail Lace Scarf that I started last April that I’d like to prioritize and finish. It’s 30% complete.
I love the color of this Kauni yarn and can’t wait to see it finished and blocked. This one requires a bit more attention so I prefer to knit this while I’m watching mindless TV.
I have my Honey Cowl which is half way there and could probably be completed within the week or so depending on the kind of knitting time I have. This is great for movies.
And finally my One Row Lace Scarf which I’ve mostly been knitting on airplanes and long car rides where I’m the passenger because it travels so easily. It’s an easy lace pattern and it doesn’t take up any room in my bag. It seems like I’m traveling so much but mostly I’ve been driving which makes knitting impossible. It’s 40% complete.
All of a sudden, I feel like I can finish these projects and get started on new things. Taking inventory and frogging that half a sock really made me feel great. Hopefully I can get in a lot of knitting today.
Friday over lunch I finished the seed stitch border and got the DNA Scarf blocking as soon as I got home from work.
And now my dad can take his scarf home with him today. He tried it on last night after we got home from a day filled with many things like running at the indoor track, shopping at TJ Maxx and grocery shopping for a delicious dinner. 
The finished scarf is about six feet long and five and half inches wide. I did twelve cable pattern repeats and omitted the ribbing at the neck so it was more like a traditional scarf.
Look! He struck a pose in his new scarf!
I am making great progress on the DNA Scarf.
Tonight I should finish up the tenth pattern repeat and start on the eleventh (hopefully). Tomorrow night I’ll have a lot of knitting time and finish the eleventh and will see if I have enough yarn for a twelfth repeat.
Even thought it’s taking me a while to knit, it’s totally worth it. It’s such an interesting pattern and the DNA cables look great.
So I’ve fallen into bad habits. Even though I have a few other projects I’d like to finish like my honey cowl and Fishtail Lace Scarf, I started looking through patterns on Ravelry with my stash in mind.
I keep thinking about how sparkly and pretty this yarn is and how I need a pretty shawl made out of it’s loveliness.
And I found what I think will be the perfect pattern. The Augustine Shawlette stuck out and I kept going back and forth and telling myself to be patient. I love the way it drapes and the way it can be worn loose like a shawl or tighter like a scarf.
My curiosity got the best of me and I had to read the pattern. So I bought the pattern the other night just so I could read it.
I clearly cannot start this project but I couldn’t help myself. It’s such a bad habit because there is so much joy in actually wearing the finished objects and I can’t keep tempting myself with new projects.
I guess there are worse habits.
I’ve made quite a bit of progress on my two most recent projects.
My Honey Cowl is coming along very nicely.
As I knit the first few rows before the pattern and was a little worried that I selected the wrong yarn but the color changes make the pattern even more interesting.
I’ve also completed over three repeats of the pattern in the DNA Scarf.
I predict that I will have twelve pattern repeats (maybe fourteen?) by the time I near the end of my yarn. I’ll probably weigh my yarn when I finish this section to be sure. My goal is to have this completed and blocked in two weeks. My parents will be visiting and I want to give this to my dad. I’m hoping by writing this out, I take this goal very seriously. We shall see!
My friend Marla has always been an admirer of my knitting and first requested a hat well over a year maybe even much longer.
A couple weeks ago when I was in Lancaster, I picked up two skeins of Noro Bonbori.
I was specifically planning to knit an earflap hat for Marla. This is the fourth hat I’ve made in this pattern and it’s so simple and has a great result.
I’m loving the unseasonable weather we’ve been having but I hope that she gets some use out of this hat this winter. I’ll send it out this week!
This past week I was in Lancaster for work. When I found myself with some free time, I googled yarn stores and I found two great shops.
The first shop I visited was Kitnit Fine Yarns. Their website said they had Malabrigo and I thought I would buy a skein of their Chunky to try another Dolores Park Cowl in the yarn the pattern called for. Of course I made this decision in the time it took me to drive there.
When I got there, I talked with the shop owner and she said they didn’t have any Malabrigo Chunky and they might have some other Malabrigo but it would be in their sale selection.
Their sale selection was awesome and I found some great yarns. I got some Noro for a hat for a friend that I’ll show off once it’s finished. But I also got the one skein of Malabrigo Sock in their sale selection in the Ravelry Red colorway.
I also got a skein of Louisa Harding Millais that I think will make a cute hat for a baby.
I also got a chance to visit Lancaster Yarn Shop. It’s in Intercourse which is just outside of the city of Lancaster and it’s exactly what you think of when you imagine Amish Country. It was a beautiful day so I saw so many horse and buggies, tons of laundry drying on lines and animals out on the surrounding farms.
This shop is possibly the cutest shop I’ve been in. I just loved the space, the way the yarn is organized and the pretty displays. And the owner was so friendly and nice to talk with.
I chatted with the shop owner while I browsed and she pointed me to the display of local yarns. There were about three different brands with different weights and all of them were beautiful and soft and it was difficult to choose just one. Ultimately, sparkle won out (who am I buying my second skein of yarn with sparkle?) and I chose a yarn by Crabapple Yarns.
I’m so happy with my new stash additions!
In the past two days I worked a couple more pattern repeats on my DNA Scarf. This pattern looks so cool but it requires paying attention to what you’re doing since all thirty something rows are completely different and not memorizable.
Last night, Mike and I decided to watch a movie and since all of my current WIPs really require me to pay some kind of attention (okay, not the socks that just need a simple ribbed pattern on the top but they’re in a long hibernation), I figured I might as well just start something new.
About two months ago, my friend Ali sent me this beautiful yarn in a Secret Turkey exchange among a group of friends.
The yarn is Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester DK and it’s from Nova Scotia. A few weeks ago when I was organizing my stash, I realized that it would be the perfect yarn for a Honey Cowl. I guess I’ve had that in my mind since then and watching a movie seemed to be the perfect excuse to get started.
I didn’t get far because I had to ball the yarn (I don’t have a swift or a yarn winder so I do this by hand over my legs) and cast on and get started. But I love how it’s started and it is such an easy pattern.
I cast on 160 stitches to make the in between size cowl and I suspect it might not be as wide as the pictures. But I can tell this is going to be warm and pretty.
Butler really seems to like it.
Or maybe he just likes that the shade is open and he can see the snow from a safe distance.
And here’s a bonus of both of them. Because Chica was there too.
The Dolores Park Cowl is an easy, well written pattern and people’s results are beautiful. I love the way this project looks on the designer’s page. And it was one of the projects I wanted to complete in 2012.
Look at how beautiful it turned out on Knitorious.
And then there’s mine.
It’s not really bad and the yarn I used was fabulous. I used the Schoppel-Wolle Pur I got at Rosie’s Yarn Cellar. The colors are gorgeous and the yarn is so soft and easy to knit with.
But I am just not in love with the finished product. My knitting looks a bit sloppy to me. I’ll wear it of course, but I am not 100% in love with it yet.
