Finished object: Castilleja Cowl | Spud & Chloe Sweater

Castilleja Cowl knit in Spud & Chloe Sweater.

It's been school holidays here and I have been busy with the kids every day so far.  I have had little knitting time and the blog has been a bit neglected. But today I've managed to get some rest time out of the kids and so it's blog time.

Throughout June I was working between 4 projects and just casually switching between them depending on what I felt like working on at the moment. I've been plodding through my Maeve Shrug and also cast on at the beginning of the month for the Skein podcast shawl KAL. I had also been slowly working on a mini version of the Moto Vest for my girl and an anniversary present for the husband. Between these projects I was starting to feel a little unmotivated since I wasn't getting anywhere near finishing any of them. 

I love the cosiness of a cowl in winter.

Then my little guy got invited to a kinder friend's birthday party and we only had a week's notice. I don't enjoy taking the kids to the shopping centre these days so I decided to knit the little girl something. I figured a quick gift knit might help me get my knitting mojo back.

Sir S choose some yarn out of my stash and we found an easy (and free) cowl pattern  off Ravelry called the Castilleja Cowl. It calls for a worsted weight yarn and I used some grape coloured Spud & Chloe sweater yarn. The yarn is beautifully soft and squishy with a wool and organic cotton composition. 

Simple details kept this knit interesting.

I knit this up in two days and I'm quite pleased with the results. The cowl design has regular elongated stitches set within reverse stockinette stitch and is bordered by fisherman's rib sections. There was just enough variation in it to keep it an interesting knit. 

The pattern is well written with easy to follow instructions and if a bigger cowl is desired it can be adapted without too much difficulty. The pattern needs a multiple of 6 stitches cast on and a wider cowl can be achieved with more repeats of the pattern.

I hope the birthday girl will enjoy the cowl as the cold weather sets in. I guess even though I had wanted to reevaluate my gift making I can't help myself; making gifts still feels better to me than buying.

Happy with High Water

A perfect fit for Sir S

I finished the High Water pullover for Sir S recently but had to wait for some cooler weather before I could convince him to try it on for some shots. Today's not too hot and I resorted to the ol' bribery, "I'll give you a whole Zooper Dooper if try this on and let Mummy take some photos.".

I always love photographing this little guy's facial expressions

One of the joys of this pattern was that the use of worsted weight yarn plus lots of stockinette stitch made it a very quick knit. The last pullover I knit for S took me about 7 months to complete because it was using fingering weight yarn and Miss L was born in the midst of it.

Other than the concerns that I have with the choice of green stripes because of S's colour blindness I did blunder up the right sleeve. When I got down to the rib cuff I realised that I was one stitch short and I have no idea how that happened; the most likely possibility is that I picked up one less stitch under the arm when I was starting the sleeve. Hence why I subtitled this blog, "the (mis)adventures of...", I always manage to make some little mistake in all my knits.

Of course he chose black buttons because it's a colour he is definitely able to see

Regardless of the missing stitch the jumper fits very well on my skinny mini and I am certain that it will last him this coming winter season.

This was the first time working with the Cascade 220 worsted yarn for me. It has really great stitch definition and a lovely springiness that holds the structure of the garment well. But, I was a little disappointed that it was not as soft to touch as I had hoped it would be. However, I read the comments on Ravelry and there are claims for other users that it softens with washing. Sir S has commented that it feels scratchy against his skin but I'm hoping that he will be able to wear a long sleeve baselayer in the winter with it to buffer his skin from the wool.

I made a MOD with the sleeve cuff because Sir S requested "sleeves like mittens". I knit in some thumb holes and made the whole cuff 10cm long (2cm more than the pattern suggestion). If I make thumb holes again I will try a different technique because I think my bind off, knit two rows and then cast back on method is a bit sloppy. Next time I will do it like a buttonhole with a K2tog then a yarn over in the next row.

roaring fun thumb holes

Overall, I love the stripes and the boat neck collar. I used exactly 2 skeins of the Cascade and just under 10g - approx. 14m according to Ravelry calculations - of the Spud & Chloe for the stripes. It felt good to stash bust some of this yarn that I had purchased so long ago.

I love the classic and simple stripes design

I look forward to the winter and taking some more photos of Sir S wearing this jumper while in action.