Hi Friends!
Gosh, this one took forever. I'll check the dates on my first photos in a minute to get a ballpark of how long this took, but I'm thinking it was close to a year from start to finish.
... yep, I started it in late October 2018...
The reason this took so long was not that I'm a slow knitter, but that this project got put in timeout several times for being complicated, and slow going.
The complicated part was the lace: the lace pattern was two leaves wide and two leaves tall, so for my total width in the cowl I did: edging, 3 repeats of the lace pattern including a purl 2 border between each one, and the edging again. This meant that my row was fairly long, and the lace pattern was 20 rows tall for both leaves. I had to keep track of where I was both horizontally and vertically, and remember to repeat the row of the pattern three times to actually complete a row of my actual cowl.
Because of several factors, it was slow, too: all that keeping track slowed me down; marking where I was on the pattern slowed me down; some of the fancier stitches slowed me down - but mostly because of counting to where I needed to put them, because the pattern was impossible to memorize, so I had to watch what I was doing more closely; and the yarn was scratchy which meant it didn't glide as smoothly.
And because of both the complicated and the slow, I got bored with it fast and didn't do long sessions of knitting as often, and didn't pick it up as often because it wasn't as fun.
HOWEVER, the pattern was pretty well written (if a bit over-complicating things a few times), and the chart was easy to follow (it was actually the first chart I worked with. This pattern was geared toward "ambitious beginners" and had a written version as well as a chart version, so that "rosetta stone" helped me figure out charts! I've since done others successfully). I ended up ending the scarf when the length "felt right" but it actually matched the number of repeats the pattern author suggested! The pattern, while tedious to make, ended up beautiful, and might have been a bit more enjoyable with a different yarn - I don't feel like I will use this pattern again, but if so, I'll make something smaller and with a better yarn and see if I like the pattern better and find it less wearisome.
The yarn: This is the same yarn you might recognize from the Cedar Leaf Shawlette I finished in October 2018. Here are all the posts about that one:
WIP Cedar Leaf Shawlette Part 3, Sept. 22, 2018
Cedarleaf Shawlette WIP Update 4, Sept. 29, 2018
Completed Green Cedar Leaf Shawlette, Oct. 28, 2018
Completed Cedar Leaf Shawlete, Nov. 3, 2018
Here are all the prior posts about this cowl:
WIP Leafy Cowl, Oct. 27, 2018
New Folia Cowl, post 2, Nov. 10, 2018
Folia Cowl, post 3 (work in progress), April 13, 2019
And, a year later, it's finally done! I haven't worn it with any outfit yet (the picture above was a trial run), so we'll see if it ends up being a wardrobe staple or not.
The
Shawlette sits farther out on my shoulders, so the yarn is less of an
issue, but with the cowl, it sits right up against my neck if I'm not
careful, so the scratchiness of the yarn is a bit of a downer.
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| The length and pattern progressing. |
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| Trying to figure out what length to stop at. |
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| Testing the length. |
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| Figuring out where to put the closure. |
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| A close-up of the pattern. The part between my fingers is one vertical repeat of the lace pattern. |
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| Bound off! |
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| The finished cowl! |
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| Spread out in the shape I would wear it. |
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| How it looks on me! |
Yours,
Sarah
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