Cowl & Mitten

Someone asked me to create a cowl for their daughter, and here it is!

It's based on the urban cowl pattern by the fabulous Isela Phelps, though her pattern calls for a series of knit and purl stitches. My stitches are all stockinette due to the usage of the colors and because of the deadline involved. Following Isela's directions, the cowl was easy to make on the yellow round Knifty Knitter loom.The challenging part was incorporating the white, black and grey stripes. This was done simply by cutting the yarn and tying the two color strands together every time I wanted to add a stripe.

The yarn I used was Michael's Loops & Threads Cozy Wool Black and White, and a grey roving which I don't recall the brand name for.It took me a white to pick out the colors even though they are simple ones, because I wanted them all to work together. If the white was too white or the grey too dark, it wouldn't work for me. The person who received it was delighted.

The cowl is versatile because you can wear it in several ways. Here are three ways -

One row around your neck with a large hanging loop,

two rows around your neck or

three rows around your neck. Since it is a wool blend it is not itchy.

Next, I knit a replacement mitten for someone, using Fisherman's Wool. You may recall last year that I knit the same person a pair of felted mittens. He has a large growth on his hands and so there were no mittens available in stores that were large enough for him. Unfortunately, the growth on his hands has continued to enlarge, so he required a larger replacement for the one I had made. Here's how it looked after I felted it:

I didn't allow it to shrink too much from the size I made it, but just enough for the fibers to entagle together and form a strong bond. As was expected, the thumb stretched out as it shrank and felted, which required me to cut it. So after I sewed on the fleece and elastic border to the bottom of the mitten, I turned the mitten inside out, cut the thumb and sewed it shut. Here it is inside out. You can see the inside is nice and smooth for his hand:

After sewing the thumb shut I turned the mitten outside in, and here's the finished product. He was very happy to get it.