Happy Blogday

Well, it's official. This little blog is one year old today. And look how far we've come. We're not just celebrating first steps and the wide world of solid foods here at mimsy. No, we are going all out with an FO. Say hello to my somewhat Somewhat Cowl.






(Sorry, she's a bit of a ham.)

Pattern: Somewhat Cowl by Knit and Tonic Wendy
Yarn: Louet Gems Opal, superwash merino, about 4.5 skeins (I actually have 1.5 leftover--perhaps for socks?) I am in serious love with this yarn.
Needles: This project was an orgy of needles (hmmm, wonder what type of Google hits that might inspire). Let's see, for the body I used US 5s, both custom-sharpened Clovers and Susan Bates Silvalumes. The bottom ribbing was done with US 4 Susan Bates Quicksilvers. The sleeves were magic-looped on US 5 Inoxes, and US 4 Addis. And the neck ribbing was done on US 2 Quicksilvers. This, however, was not on purpose. Even though I thought to myself, gee these needles seem small for 4s, I never bothered to check them out because it didn't even occur to me that the 2s might have snuck into my knitting basket in the first place. There's nothing like making that 6 inches of 2x2 ribbing last as long as humanly possible, I guess.

Pattern Notes: I did fewer armhole increases than indicated to prevent baggy-gappiness. That, and eliminating the cast-on stitches when I joined under the arms really helped. Also, I worked a series of paired decreases on both sides so that the sweater would taper in at the waist, aiding in the illusion of that perfect, sweater-girl silhouette. You can see the mock seam that they created in the last picture above. I didn't bother doing an matching increases below the waist, and I like the way it looks. I increased the body length by about three inches and the sleeves by 1.5.

The biggest alteration was to the cowl itself, and the reason I call this the somewhat-Somewhat Cowl. (Actually, I suppose my modifications make it more of a "Closer-to-Cowl-than-Somewhat.") As you can see, my neckline is folded outwards, as opposed to Wendy's, which is tacked down on the inside. Once I had finished all the knitting, I played around with several collar options. I had a weird bulge along the neckline on one side, either because I screwed up the increases at the very beginning or I was clumsy in the picking up of stitches. Either way, I wasn't sure that blocking alone would cure it. Folding the collar out, however, at least hid it. So that's what I did. I stitched it down in the front, but mostly it stays put because I pinned it in place while steam-blocking (my first steam-blocking experience, by the way. It may be my new favorite way to block.)

I adore this sweater. As soon as I weaved in the last end on Friday evening, I threw her on and jaunted off for pizza and beer. And, I wore her again today. I simply can't get enough.

See?