FO Friday- Plaited cowl

Somewhere in my house there is clearly a black hole that eats time. I will try to find it, because I could really do with time to stop randomly disappearing so I can do all the things I want to.

I have still been knitting though, just less. Finished objects are being achieved by either making small projects or by obsessive knitting when I have the house to myself (see next week's FO Friday for details).

This is one of the former, and for once I remembered to take the photo last weekend, when there was actual daylight!

Pattern: Clara cowl by by Gretchen Ronnevik

Yarn: Debbie Bliss cashmerino chunky, 100g

Needles: 9.0mm

The yarn was leftover from making a cardigan. Actually this is not strictly true, I bought twelve balls in a destash sale, but two balls were a different dye lot. The seller was honest about this, but I didn't want to use it in the cardigan. I kept it separate and finally found a use for it.

The yarn is beautifully soft. It might be made from kittens and clouds and the like. Unfortunately I think it is going to fuzz up quite a lot with wear. Using thick yarn and chunky needles was a nice change, I think it is good for my hands too.

The pattern is simple, basically a wide stand alone cable. I had not realised it was a cable when I started, I assumed it was three strips plaited together. The cable method is much more sensible as plaited strips would roll and have gaps whereas this gives a beautiful squishy cowl with no spaces. It is worked in rib, which adds extra squishiness and warmth but does mean it takes longer to knit than expected.

There is an interesting technique of Kitchener rib in the pattern. This makes it totally reversible. I have to be honest I did not do the neatest job of it. I got in a mess with the provisional cast on and twisted some of the stitches. It looks passable so I am not redoing it, but it could be neater. It is a little more fiddly than standard Kitchener, but not any more difficult, the pattern builds it up to be a bigger deal than it really is.