A Mobious Cowl

I need something quick to knit across the New Year. I am hoping to have bigger projects to knit in January when I have had time to sort out my stash of yarn and yet I need something to keep my fingers busy in the mean time.

I have knitted Harmonia's Rings Cowl before, and whilst I am not fond of knitting on circular needles, I have found that I wear the finished product constantly. It is so useful as it is cosy round my neck, but also the back can be lifted and worn over my head if the need suddenly arises.

This seemed like an excellent project for over the New Year and I managed to find some remnants of yern with which to knit it. I am not sure there is sufficient yarn to finish it, but if necessary I can add another colour around the edges.

I had to watch the Mobious cast-on video listed in the pattern in order to remind myself how to do this type of cast-on. It fascinates me how this turns out. It is rather difficult to get the hang of in the first place, but once you have got it the actual knitting is quite easy. It took several attempts to count the stitches to check if I had the right number, it is easy to get lost, but I managed it in the end.

I was given a new yarn bowl for Christmas which I am thrilled with, it is so useful.

Midnight Plummage Finished

I have at last added the collar and finished the jacket/coat.

In order to add the collar I picked up the stitches around the neck, starting at the centre of the front fill in, round the back and finished at the centre of the other crossover front. I then proceeded to knit garter stitch for 32 rows. I had hoped to take photos of just the collar, but no matter how I took the photo, the dark midnight blue of the collar wouldn't show up in the photo so here is a photo of the whole thing :-

Next came the decisions over which buttons to use. When I was about half way through knitting the coat I started to wish I had chosen a multi coloured wool for the feathers. The two blues look very nice, but all those photos on the website show some wonderful variations in colour. I therefore decided to introduce another colour by way of the buttons. Apart from the buttons up the front closure I also added a row of them down the centre point of the back:-

Front insert for gap

The new insert to cover the gap across the chest is finished.

In order to make it I picked up the stitches from the front that I had previously saved on the spare needle, making sure I finished at the feather end of the piece. On the next row I cast off enough stitches to take me roughly to the centre of the feather (25 stitches in my case), then knitted to the neck end of the row.
Next row: Cast off 5 stitches knit to bottom end of row. (77 sts for me)
Knit three more full rows.
You should now be at the neck end of the row.
Begin shaping in the same short row way as the sleeves were knitted i.e. :-
Knit 5, turn double stitch and knit back to neck edge
Knit to double stitch, knit 5 more stitches, turn double stitch and knit back to neck edge
Continue adding 5 more stitches and turning until you reach the last seven stitches, turn double stitch and knit back to neck edge.
Now knit 3 double rows across all stitches ending at neck edge. This is the centre of the insert, more rows can be added here if needed.
Knit to last 7 stitches, turn and knit to neck edge
Knit to 5 stitches before double stitch, turn and knit to neck edge.
Continue in this way, leaving 5 stitches each time until you reach the last five, knit to neck edge
Knit two double rows then loosely cast off.

I then picked up 77 stitches from the cast on on the other front side and repeated the pattern. It isn't necessary to knit one on each side but I wanted the extra warmth from the double breast portion as this is going to be worn as a coat.

Next, and last, part to do is the collar.

Strange photo showing the two finished lapels:-

Sleeves - End Result

At last I have finished the sleeves. As I said in the last paragraph of my previous post I wanted to shorten the sleeves by about 20 stitches, which worked well using the method described there. The only problem was that as the sleeves were shorter the feather portions came right above my elbow and when it was finished it and I tried it on it looked silly, rather like those puffed out pantaloons the nobles wore in the Tudor age. I should have taken a photo to show you, but unfortunately I didn't think about it. The whole sleeve needed to be pulled out and I started again.

Using the 60 stitches and increasing by 4 each row had been the correct size, (I have shortish arms) so I started out with that again. The large feather I decided had to go, and I would just put 3 single lines of contrasting colour down the centre of the sleeve instead.

I achieved this by simply knitting to the wrist edge and back again in the contrasting colour where the instructions say knit a feather. Inbetween I knitted 3 double rows of main colour and also cast on/off the eight stitches for the feather tip at the wrist edge. I filled this tip with two short rows of contrasting colour either side of the main row. I was rather pleased with the end result:-

Now I need to fill in the empty chest portion on the front as I wish to use it as a coat/jacket. I need to pick up the stitches I left on the circular needle when I finished the last front side and transfer them to straight needles again.

Progress - Sleeves

I have now finished the front and back portions and joined them at the top as instructed. Next comes the sleeve which I want to continue to do on straight needles rather than the circular ones suggested in the pattern.

The first thing is to pick up the required number of stitches around the armhole. As the armhole is a joined circle there is no way of doing it on straight needles and so I picked up the stitches on the circular needle.

From here I can do the rest of the sleeve on straight ones starting by casting the provisional stitches on the straight needle. 

Continue working the instructions from there. When I need to add a stitch from the armhole, at the end of every double row, I just knit it from the circular needle onto the straight needle.

The other problem I have is to shorten the sleeve. The sleeve on the last one I knitted was too long by about 20 stitches so I need to find some way of altering the pattern. I started by casting on 60 stitches instead of the 80 recommended by the pattern. Instead of increasing the rows by 5 stitches as suggested I increased the rows by only 4 stitches each time in order to make the required 15 rows to the wrist end of the needle.

Beginnings - Why Nutty Knitting.

Why Nutty Knitting I hear you ask? Well, firstly I enjoy something that they call Free Range Knitting - basically making the pattern up as you go along - and secondly, even when following a pattern my knitting often does not turn out as expected!

I am currently knitting a jacket I have knitted before. I call it my Technicoloured Rainbow Jacket. It is by Heidrun Liegmann and she called it Spring Plumage .  I knitted it on straight needles, not the circular ones recommended, added a collar and filled in the V to make it button across the front. I am really pleased with it and everybody admires it when I wear it.                            

I am making this latest one with a midnight blue background and lavender feathers so I have called it Midnight Plumage. This is it so far :-