Tag: cowl

Episode 45 – Long Podcast is Long

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What I’m Wearing

Housekeeping

  • 2017 Stash Down going on in the Ravelry board
  • Our sponsors for the MAL so far are myself, Caroline of Clothesline Designs, Tamara of TamsCraftyKnits and Erin of Remade by Hand Designs
  • Please note that Tamara has closed her Etsy shop, she will still be selling on Facebook, more details will be forthcoming, check out her podcast for more details
  • Please contact me via Ravelry PM or at julieannec@mymuddlings.com if you’d like to sponsor a prize or go to PayPal to donate towards prizes
  • June chatter winner announced!

Finished Objects

  • In Dreams Vanilla Socks, my project page
  • Unwind Yarn Company Journey Sock in ‘UnTEAL We Meet Again’ & Rendezvous Sport Sock in ‘In Dreams’
  • 303 yards / 278 metres
  • 2.5mm (US 1.5) HiyaHiya Sharps 9″ circulars
  • Dragon Tears Fingerless Mitts by Ashlea Konecny (modified, pattern used for base idea), my project page
  • Solar Flair Fibres Apollo in Bromeliad
  • 172 yards / 157 metres
  • 3.75mm (F) & 4.0mm (G) crochet hooks

Works in Progress

  • Mini-Skein Cowl, my project page
  • Lovebird Lane Yarns Mini-Skein Sets in Tonal & Variegated
  • 3.75mm (US 5) generic 24″ circular
  • Dragon Tears Fingerless Mitts by Ashley Konecny (modified, pattern used for base idea), my project page
  • Moda Vera Fayette in Plum Mix
  • 3.75mm (F) Boye ergonomic crochet hook
  • Picnic Blanket Socks, my project page
  • Finch Yarns Sock Yarn in Blanket Proposal
  • 2.5mm (US 1.5) HiyaHiya Sharps 9″ circulars

Coming Up

  • Herbarium by Nadia Crétin-Léchenne, my project page
  • Bergère de France Bigarelle in Parme
  • Swatched on 3.5mm (US 4) generic circulars
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FO: Duotone Cowl

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This is seriously one of my most favourite FOs for a long time. 😀

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This is the Duotone Cowl by Orange Flower Yarn. It is a fairly simple pattern but the ultimate beauty of it is the yarn. The precious, precious yarn. Voolenvine Yarns Smitten DK.

I’d had the two skeins of yarn in my stash for a while. They colourways are Jilted Rose (the soft burgundy/pink) and Black Pearl (the darker purple grey). The Smitten DK base is an 80/10/10 Merino, cashmere, nylon. So it’s super soft. 🙂 It’s my first time using a yarn with cashmere in it and now I know why people love it so much! I picked this pattern for the yarn pretty much straight away but I fiddle-faddled about it. I went from thinking it was the perfect pattern for the yarn to thinking it was too simple and not ‘good enough’ for the gorgeous Voolenvine Yarns. If you know anything about Voolenvine Yarns, you know that it’s super hard to get. Kristen is a one-woman show and dyes as much as she can every week but it will literally sell out in minutes. You can be cart-jacked (items you’ve added to your cart being sold before you can purchase) very easily. So I wanted to do justice to Kristen’s beautiful dye work. In the end, my need to cast on the Voolenvine was too much so I went ahead and cast on for this cowl. And I’m so glad I did. I ADORE this cowl. As I said on Instagram, I think I want to divorce my husband and marry this cowl, lol.

This pattern is free on Ravelry so I’m not giving away any secret sauce here. The cowl is knit as a tube with a suggested provisional cast on. Although I’m usually pretty good with a provisional cast on, I tried it twice for this cowl and it just wasn’t working, so I used a long tail cast on. My lack of success with the provisional cast quite possibly could have been due to a) my rushing the first time because I needed to catch a bus and b) the second time I was on the bus, lol. 😉 No matter, I’m very comfortable with grafting from a cast on edge so I just long tailed it. You can barely see where it’s joined and once the cowl is blocked it’ll likely disguise it even more. The only giveaway is you can feel a small ridge where the cast on is. But no one is going to SEE it. There are two different sections to the cowl as you can see by the above picture. Halfway you switch the colours that are working the thicker and thinner stripes. The pattern calls for 15 repeats (I think?) of each section but I did 18 because I had the yarn. Due to my gauge I’m glad I did because it’s quite a snug cowl. But it’s a perfect size. This project is perfect. I love it so!

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Details: Knit on 5mm (US8) generic 17″ circulars. I used 210 yards of Black Pearl and 205 yards of Jilted Rose for a total of 415 yards. My Ravelry project page here.

I loved knitting this so much I want to use up all my DK and worsted yarn and make a ton of these. 😉 You might just find some crazy lady on a random Adelaide street corner handing out Duotone Cowls! lol

Have you been lucky enough to nab some Voolenvine Yarns? Do you struggle to find good enough projects for your precious yarn? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

J x

More from the Ravelry Archives

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Ok, today’s update is for things that go near my head! 🙂

#1 – Ripe Ear Warmer – Ravelry notes here.

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This pattern is Hilda Ogden by Morgan Forrester. It is a headband that’s knit in Brioche stitch. I had never done Brioche stitch before so it was fun to learn something new. Basically, Brioche stitch leaves you with a rib look but there’s no purl stitches between the knits. It uses yarn overs and knit two togethers, to create a really cushy fabric. It was knit from the leftovers of the Augustbird yarn I knit my Star Crossed Slouchy Beret in. I have yet to wear this but my hair is at that weird growing out length where if I wear a headscarf or a headband that goes right around my head, the hair on the nape of my neck sticks out funny and looks silly so I’ll need to wait a little while longer to wear it. I love it though! So pretty! 🙂

#2 – Rustic Shell Cowl – Ravelry notes here.

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This was a pattern called Ribbed Shell Cowl by Gretchen Tracy of Balls to the Walls Knits blog. It is a free pattern available via the blog and it’s pretty awesome. I must say though that when I was knitting it I was pretty bored as essentially it’s just a fancy rib, but the final result is wonderful! 🙂 I used about 201 yards of a 58% Merino/42% silk single ply yarn dyed by Anais Yarns. It’s really as shiny as it looks in the picture and it’s lovely and soft. I can’t wait until it’s cooler to wear this one. 🙂

#3 – Trinity Bellwoods. Ravelry notes here.

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This pattern is as seen in Trinity Bellwoods by Robbie Eddison. I knit it from a skein of Stranded in Oz Shadow Kin hand dyed sock yarn. I used the whole skein but it’s a little small. I can only really wear it as a kerchief tied behind my neck or overlapping on my shoulder held with a brooch or shawl pin. I love the colours though and the garter stitch is nice and squishy. I haven’t blocked it yet, but I’m not sure I’m going to. I’m not entirely convinced I could get much more length out of it if I did and I like the squishiness of it as it is.

#4 – Life Cycle. Ravelry notes here.

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And finally, this pattern is Life Cycle by Alana Dakos from Botanical Knits 2. I knit it from some very special Dyed in the Wool yarn by Spincycle Yarns in the colourway End of Summer. The colour of the yarn is supposed to represent the turning of the leaves through the seasons. Unfortunately my skeins didn’t have as much green in them as others I’ve seen so I was a little disappointed with that but the scarf is beautiful so I guess I can deal. 😉 I still have most of a skein left so I’m going to make another one but shorter. This is quite long as you can see from the picture. I had just wet blocked it and pinned it out. Sorry I don’t have a better picture but as soon as I started wearing it, it all curled up again so I’m not quite sure how I can keep it flat so you can see the leaves as I’m wearing it… Any tips? Anyone?

So there’s my head/neckwear! Thanks for reading!

FOs: Patricia Cowl in two forms

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Since I cut my hair off right before winter, I’ve been loving myself a cowl. Knitted. Sewn. Doesn’t matter, I love ’em. When I saw this tutorial for the Patricia Infinity Cowl from Luvinthemommyhood I was sold. 🙂

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My attempt at a serious shot. I don’t know that they work! I have resting bitch-face. 😉

This was the first one I made. Using blues and greens that I found as stash starters on discount at Spotlight. I loosely followed the tutorial for this one. By that I mean the tutorial called for full fat quarters of fabric to make up the pieces; I cut smaller pieces as I didn’t want to use up all the of the fabric. The problem being that it was then too small to double up around my neck so it has to be worn open and swinging, which I don’t mind at all. 🙂 As they are an infinity cowl, the fabric is sewn as a big long tube, finished by some hand slip stitch so you don’t see any seams.

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For my second attempt, I purchased full fat quarters from Spotlight. This worked better except for the fact that the ‘fat quarters’ varied wildly in size so some alteration of the pieces were required. I was very happy with this one. 🙂 It still doesn’t seem as big as the one on Shannon’s tutorial but at least I can double wrap it. I’ve used this many times to keep my neck warm and add a bit of flair to an outfit. 🙂

If you’re looking for a quick and easy (and of course stylish) sewing project, definitely try one of these. I give it a big thumbs up. 🙂

P.S. I’ve knitted myself a cowl also, just need to take some pics so I can blog. And I haven’t forgotten about my Renfrews!

A day of success!

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So today I have successfully dyed a Renfrew (from latte to purple), started a Rustling Leaves beret  (successfully after frogging it five times) and made a Patricia cowl (which I made too short but it’s still cute). All will get their own post but I was just so chuffed that I thought I’d write a post. 🙂

If you’re wondering why I dyed my Renfrew, long story short I had a mishap with some Napisan. Full story to come.

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Here’s to an awesome week of sewing/knitting/crafting! 🙂

My new lady :)

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So, about 3 weeks back I discovered that Spotlight did weekly deals on their website that once sold out are all gone. The week I happened upon it was just the week where they were selling this half price:

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Da ya think I’m sexy?

As soon as I saw this I wanted it. Half price Limited Edition Singer 160? Only $329 for this thing of beauty? That does one step button holes and has a vine stitch and is sex on a sewing table? Sign me up!

It wasn’t without consideration though. After all, money is a joint thing at MyMuddlings HQ. I started by asking Mr. MyMuddlings if there was anything for about $350 that he wanted. You know, something really special. The response was a suspicious “Why?”. 🙂 I showed him the machine and his initial response was a simple “No”. Cue sad me. I accepted that. I did have a machine that is virtually new and does the job respectably.

The next morning on his way to work I get “I’ll think about what I can get for $350”. Huh. Could she be mine after all? That night Mr. MM said I could have her and that he’d keep his equivalent $350 for when something else came up in the future for him to spend it on. She was all mine!!!

Then came the agonising wait for the deal to end and then for my beautiful new beast to be shipped to me. After about a week and a half this is what happened:

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Oooooo shiny!

She’s beautiful but she’s bloody heavy!!! The same night I got her I finished my second Drunken Cushion Cover with her. So smooth. So quiet. I’m smitten! 😉 Since then I have made a Vogue V1179 & a Sewaholic Renfrew on her. Also Miss. S’ makeup bag from yesterday’s post. My little Elna 1000 is still in her place in my sewing cabinet. She will come in handy for when Miss. S & I start making our Mathilde blouses and Jenny skirts; we’ll have a machine each!

My plans for crafting this weekend involve making a Patricia Infinity Cowl tomorrow and perhaps some knitting tonight starting on my first actual proper project, the Rustling Leaves beret by Alana Dakos from the Coastal Knits pattern book. Looks like I’m set. What’s everyone making this weekend? 🙂