My Earl Grey Cinnamon Toast

My “long-term” project took about a month. This is a lovely pattern by Laura Aylor—well-thought out, well-written. I like working with madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light so much that it might be dangerous to go into a yarn shop that carries it, but for now, these two skeins were the last of my stash. I have the same problem with Brooklyn Tweed Loft, but luckily, I have some waiting to wind and knit.

Anyway, I wanted a project that wasn’t lace, and that required attention and thought. I got it—especially when it was time to double the stitches for the ruffled border. I made the mistake of calculating how many stitches it would take to finish: 15,864. For days, every time I sat down to knit, I just had to do the math. Then one day, I had just four rows to go, or 2,664 stitches. I was a little sad, I think, and after I bound off, my beautiful shawl sat in a lump on the couch for days and days. I’d finished, but now what?

Cowl-zilla

What else should I do when I’ve just done a lot of knitting on relatively small needles with fingering yarn? Cast on a giant cowl, of course. Not an infinity scarf, but a cowl that’s really deep—I’ve noticed them popping up on Ravelry. I texted my niece Becca and asked her opinion: if I make this kind of cowl, would you wear it? She said sure, so I did.

I had some Lot 1 of The Great White Bale, I had size 10.5 needles, and I had a free Sunday. I cast on 80 stitches, knit for eight rounds, then worked double seed stitch until it looked deep enough. I repeated the eight rounds of stockinette, and bound off just as Boardwalk Empire was starting. It was so much fun! It’s drying now (I had to take the picture while it was damp), and in the end it’s going to be about 28″ around and 18″ deep. I can’t wait to see what it looks like on a person. It needs someone who can really wear something this big and bold. That’s Becca!

After Cowl-zilla was finished and out of my system, I went back to the scarf I’ve been knitting for the other Becca in my life, Rebecca of the Remarkable R’s. She chose a beautiful deep green/blue shade of Nona at Rhinebeck last year, and I vowed to have it finished for this year. I’m making Lisa Lloyd’s The Road Not Taken from A Fine Fleece. I’ll take pictures of it when she wears it on October 20th!

And after that’s finished? Well, I need socks.