A START AND A FINISH

Well - there is nothing much exciting going on with me.  I found myself struggling with something to put into a blog post.  I knew I needed to venture into blog land and say hi to everyone but have very little to report on.

I had this lovely cowl just languishing literally 10 minutes from completion.  It only took about 20 hrs total to knit.  It quite lovely I think - the yarn is stunning and the pattern is an interesting pattern from Knitty.com called "Aibhlinn "  pronounced Aveelen I believe.  The original pattern calls for a much finer yarn however I saw this awesome version last year on the Knitch blog.  I'm getting off track here but Knitch is beautiful cool wonderful lovely awesome interesting well stocked shop in the Virginia Highlands historic area of Atlanta.  I was lucky enough to visit it last year in person.  I love to visit yarn shops - I have been doing this for years when I travel and sometimes I travel just to visit yarn shops - anyway - I keep a mental "top 5" list of my fave shops around the country and Knitch is definitely in the top 5.  Anyway - I keep up with their blog (make mental note to add them to my blog list) and when I saw this awesome cowl made into a bigger bulky cowl by using the bulky weight gorgeous hand dyed Blue Moon Icelandic wool - I remembered seeing it in the shop a few months prior and thinking - "OH WOW" exquisite yarn but what would or could I do with that - and it was far too expensive to just consider stashing it without a purpose (see I am trying to do better with that issue I have LOL) So obviously when I saw the lovely cowl using that yarn and also one strand of Rowan Kid Silk Haze - I was sunk - I was on the phone faster than you can say "would you please send me yadda yadda".  Here is the results - how do you like it?

there is a row of huge bobbles on the bottom - there was supposed to be a row at the top also but I eliminated that row - I thought it was too much and made the cowl look too heavy plus things like jewelry might get caught in the bobble row if around the neck edge.  the designer called the stitch pattern a spiral rib I think - here is a close up

As cold as our weather has been -I think I might still get some wear out of this cowl.

My mom was over for dinner last night and she was working on our guild SAL - the Vierlande 1863 sampler from the most recent issue of SANQ.  Here is a photo of the two of our WIPs side by side. 

We are both using the called for DMC - Mom is stitching hers on 14ct Oatmeal Aida and I am using 36ct vintage buttercream by lakeside.  She was concerned that I was getting ahead of her so she stitched while I knitted last night - finishing up the cowl pictured above.

We have another rug hooking retreat coming up this weekend.  WHEEEEEEE - Mom is actually going to get to attend this one - she has been out of town for the previous two that I have mentioned - it is at the Olde Green Cupboard - our favorite hangout and we'll just hook - eat - laugh - chat - eat - hook - laugh - you get my drift.  I am going to bring an older WIP out of hibernation - I spent quite a bit of time on Sunday going thru my rug hooking projects and deciding what would get my attention this year.  In the early part of the year - I try to assess what rugs I might could actually finish this year - some I might work on thru the year but never intend to be able to finish up.  I'll surprise you with a photo in my blog post next week after the reterat.  I don't want to spoil the surprise but it is something you should all be interested to see as it is very funky, folky and fun.  I worked on it at the Ocean rug camp year before last and have not touched it since so it was crying out from the bottom of the stack of WIP's "pick me Mel - pick me !"  when you see this rug - you will know that you can not deny the harkening of the angels.  Until next time - stay warm and keep those fingers moving.