The Cowl That Ate Cincinnati

Have you ever knit something just for the sheer ludicrousness of it?

No, me neither.

The Cowl That Ate Cincinnati (Rav me!)
Pattern: Marian, by Jane Richmond
Yarnskis: Ewenique Icelandic Sheep farm Lopi, 140 yds
Needle: US 15
Started: December 18, 2008
Finished knitting: the next day
Finished drying: about a week and a half later. (No ha ha, I’m just joking! It was only a week.)
For: me

I got this yarn at the annual Holiday Farmers’ Market that they hold down here in Whoville. Tuba Santas tooting merrily in the background, I fell upon a booth with locally raised, handspun wool.

Score.

It’s a single ply bulky, just a bit thick and thin. (But then, it’s handspun.) And it’s soft. So so very soft. It also has this beautiful sheen to it, not really captured by my arty and well-lit pictures taken on my desk at work. AND it was only $11. Crap, why didn’t I buy more of this?

I carried it around with me for a few days, squeezing and loving it, and searching for just the right pattern. I wanted a new hat. I do have many, many hats, but I was thinking of knitting another cold-weather one. Can never have too many of those.

Couldn’t find a pattern I liked. But I did see, via the “friend activity” button on Ravelry (LOVE. THAT. BUTTON.) somebody had favorited this cowl.

And then I had to knit it.

I mean, really. Could you have resisted?

It was pretty straightforward. Just a seed stitch cowl knit with huge yarn on jagnromous needles. And it did take longer to dry than it did to knit.

The only thing weird about the pattern is that it TELLS you to make a twist before joining. And since I’d always been curious about what exactly this did, I obliged. And you know what? It twists it. Weird. Although, it is weird that the description on Ravelry calls this a mobius cowl. Um, no. A mobius has a half twist. This has a full twist. But whatever, it’s still really fun to wear pulled up over your head. Very Grace Kelley.

Or perhaps Grace Kelley with a splash of Groucho Marx?

I wish it were just a bit longer, so it would totally cover the back of my neck when I wear it up like a hood. But I used every last inch of the yarn.

Whatever. I like it. In all of its goofily huge, city-eating glory.

One more knit of 2008 still left to show! Next time, dears.