Today is really a FO Friday: I have my finished Marshmallow Fluff cowl to share! The Yoda hat was done and in the mail by 1, so after that I had nothing to do but knit on the cowl, and I was binding off by dinner time.
The good: it was a great pattern for this yarn. The simple design makes the yarn the star, which was my intention. I love the fit, with it high enough to burrow my face into when the wind blows. It was an easy, fast knit.
The bad: it itches!! I have sensitive skin, so really any wool around my neck isn’t great. I can tolerate some with less prickle, but this yarn, as gorgeous as it is, has more prickle than I’m comfortable with. But my brilliant Knitting SIL suggested lining it, and I love the cowl enough that I think it’s a fantastic idea. It will make it even cozier! I want to find some fuchsia fleece, I think.
The ugly: my attempt at Kitchener stitch to graft it together. Let me start by saying this was only my second attempt at Kitchener (but my first turned out A LOT better than this). Also, I didn’t try to alter the process for the purl stitches vs the slipped stitches. I went with purl all the way across. It looks great on the inside, but here’s the right side seam:
The rows don’t match up! That bothers me a lot. My knitting SIL said Kitchener is always off by half a stitch, so maybe that’s part of it. I’m not expert enough with grafting to know how much is operator difficulty and how much is expected. Regardless, at this point I wish I had just done the 3-needle bind off the way the pattern instructed, and the way Mulch and More Crafts did with the ridge on the inside. Lesson learned: sometimes the pattern designer really does know best!
Recap: I used Vice Yarns Well Hello Big Boy, which is listed as a super bulky, and I used the whole skein. I knit with size 15 needles. Many thanks to Sarah Kraly for the free pattern, and thanks to Jenna at HardKnitLife for the idea and for playing along…if she’s started knitting yet! 😉
If you’ve decided to make one, I’d love to see your photos and hear your experience with the bind off!
I need to get busy. This needs to be shipped out today! So nope, I don’t get to play with the buttons my mom gave me yesterday. 
Don’t you just want to paw through all of those? I do! But it’ll wait. I’m off to knit Yoda and watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. (That show is hilarious. If you like musicals and quirky humor, you need to be watching it. Seriously.)
I hit my first roadblock pretty quickly. I thought I remembered how to do a provisional cast on, but it was coming out wonky. So I pulled out my trusty cast on/bind off reference book and pretty soon I was back on track. I even learned a new way do it: crocheting around the knitting needle, so the stitches are ready to go. Before, I chained and then picked up stitches in the chains. The new way is a lot more efficient.
See?? That’s how it’s supposed to look! I felt much better about myself and about the pattern. I frogged one more time, did the provisional cast on one more time, and started knitting, and this time my progress hasn’t been frogged. Just a note: I did add five stitches to my cast on to account for the smaller needles.
Sorry, the lighting is weird in that one, isn’t it? You can see it’s zipping along, and I had to stop myself from doing too much last night, since I said I wouldn’t even cast on until today! Still, it won’t take long to knit up. And I decided I’m going to use Kitchener to graft it together. Partly because I want the practice, and partly because I’m not fond of the seam that the 3-needle bind off leaves. But that’s for another day.
Jack was my photography assistant. He’s very helpful.
This is Well Hello Big Boy by Vice Yarns. I’ll be using the recommended size 19 needles and will cast on tomorrow (Wednesday). It is knit flat and seamed, so skills needed are provisional cast on and either 3-needle bind off or Kitchener stitch to graft the ends together.
bonnyknits 