Tuesday 23 April 2013

4KCBWDAY2 Knitting & Crochet Blog Week – Day 2 – A Mascot Project

Your task today is to either think of or research a project that embodies that your house/animal.

After much deliberation I have chosen my Honey Gold Button Cowl as my mascot project. 
Not an easy decision but one which encompasses a true journey, as well as signifying the yellow and black colours from my House of Bee (see yesterday's post)!

Since moving to Cornwall I have become a great advocate of cowls. 
They are far more practical than a regular scarf for a walk on a windy beach (inspired by our local Perranporth beach!), and equally as useful for saving money at home on a chilly day; wrapping your neck in a little luxury soon makes you feel much warmer and is infinitely cheaper in the long run than turning the central heating up.

Cowls with a fastening have a couple of advantages over the pull-on type:
  1. They can be worn in different ways; always a bonus to ring the changes
  2. They don’t mess up your hair; a windy beach manages that supremely without assistance.
This particular button cowl is my own design which originated from treating myself to a delicious skein of chunky cream Mirasol Sulka wool/alpaca/silk blend yarn from a Hejhog sale.

As usual I had no idea what I would use it for, but I knew the yarn would let me know. As I caressed the skein, a vision of a cosy little neck wrap burrowed into my brain. I browsed through my well-used stitch dictionaries and decided on Tassel Stitch – a textured pattern with the interest of a cabled effect but none of the extra-needle palaver.

I knitted the cowl, jotting down stitch and row counts along the way, and added a simple crochet buttonhole edging, ending up with 3cm of yarn to sew in! Absolutely nothing wasted. I finished the cowl off with a couple of large organic mother-of-pearl buttons purchased from Etsy seller Overspill. Perfect!

The pattern is now available in my Etsy shop as an instant download pattern or a kit with the Mirasol Sulka yarn.

I realised that the chunky baby alpaca yarn that I had hand-dyed was identical in metreage and weight. I had dyed a semi-solid Honey Gold as per the Pantone season colours, which I knew would compliment the pattern without drowning out the stitch texture. I knitted up the cowl and finished it off with handmade buttons in perfectly co-ordinating colours from Etsy seller PixiesDesign.

The button cowl is available to buy in my Etsy shop as a one-off, or you can purchase the chunky baby alpaca in a different colourway to use with the pattern
If you don’t see a colour that you like, let me know and I will hand-dye your own version for you at no extra cost!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely cowl, and I enjoyed looking through your Etsy shop, too! :)

Bev Newman said...

What a beautiful cowl, it looks very soft and easy to wear :-)

bookworm-Mary said...

Lovely cowl! And I totally agree, having something around your neck that wont blow away in the breeze is a wonderful thing!

Unknown said...

Beautiful cowl! We have just returned from holiday in Perranporth, have been there many times, stunning! xxx

pisky cove said...

Really lovely cowl and agree the beach needs no help in the messing up hair department I get a 'longrock blow dry' every morning walking the dogs!��

Unknown said...

Beutiful cowl and yarn! I'll have to add that to my queue!

Unknown said...

I completely agree with your use of cowls! They are so fun, and convenient! And warm!