Yarn Harlot’s Pretty Thing Cowl Pattern -FO

Finally! A finished object! I present to you, the Yarn Harlot’s Pretty Thing Cowl. It is like a little tuft of cloud-like softness!! Holy schmizels!

If you have never used qiviut yarn before, you simply must get your hands on at least one ball of this in your lifetime!
Qiviut is the down fur from the Arctic musk ox. I have been to see these cuties in person and they are just precious!

I purchased 1 oz of the delicious down fur and spun it into a lace-weight yarn. Originally I thought it was more of a fingering weight, but in truth it’s kinda in between.

You can see my spinning details here.

And further updates here.

This took me awhile to knit because:

1. It’s a chart. Which just takes longer than , say, working stockinette stitch.
2. It’s on small needles with thin yarn. Takes time.
3. But the real reason is I am retraining myself to knit! Yes, ’tis true. I normally knit continental (yarn held in the left hand), as I trained myself this way several years ago for speed and efficiency. However, I find this produces less-than-even stitches. And it creates a little bit of tension in my left wrist. So I’m learning to knit like the Yarn Harlot (what a good pattern to practice on, huh?), which she calls Irish Cottage Knitting. Here are a couple YouTube videos I found on it:

I’ve watched each of these multiple times to analyze each move and flick of the fingers, so I can duplicate it. I’m making progress. It’s been a few weeks of knitting like this and it’s still a little clumsy/awkward, mainly because my left hand is not super coordinated. And it needs to be to place the stitches from the left needles onto the right. But time will tell if this becomes a speedier knitting method, with less hand and wrist pain. Squee! So exciting! This thrills me to no end!

But about the cowl.

Some random tidbits:

-It has a lovely droop/drape going on.
-It’s super soft beyond comprehension!
-It does keep my neck warm and is great to pull up over my mouth and nose in extreme cold (we’re still experiencing 20 below zero at night)
-It barely fits over my head. Eek!
-I probably won’t wear it too much, though. I usually don’t like to mess my hair up by pulling things off and on. I suppose I could continue to wear it indoors, and I probably will, but it needs to be worn with something that has a high neck and I usually wear things with lower necks (otherwise, I feel like I’m choking). So we shall see.
-The pattern was very straight-forward and pretty simple and I highly recommend it! Anything the Yarn Harlot does is fabulous, IMO.

A picture of it resting happily in our March snow:

A picture of me attempting to pose like a real model. HA! I always make the weirdest faces. It helps if I try NOT to pose.

Me, trying to look all serious and sophisticated. Another big HA.

And a couple close-ups:

I will say, since I was using the new Irish Cottage Knitting technique AND knitting with DPNs, whereas I usually use circular needles…I made a ton of mistakes. Each round had at least 1 or 2 mistakes, if not more. But you can’t really tell, and so all is well. 🙂

So that is all for today. Monday I head off to London for a week of frivolity. Hurray! My first “real” traveling. I’m very excited. I plan on attempting to knit a hat while traveling. Whether or not I actually get any knitting done is uncertain. We shall see!

And to close with a word of wisdom for the day, thanks to my sis, (I was feeling a wee bit down this morning and she always perks me up):

“When faced with any decision, ask yourself, ‘Does this feed my soul?’ “

Hmmm.. Good food for thought. All things yarn definitely feed my soul. So I’m off to shower, cozy up in pajamas, put on a good movie, maybe spin a little bit and start knitting on said hat.

Enjoy your weekend! Who knows, something life-changing might occur!

Peace & Light

C.