Cowl of a Time!

Most of what i've worked on this week has been cowls(or cowl related). My first and probably my favorite piece was the cloud cowl i 'designed' the chart for. It came out amazingly awesome, all though i still need practice with the colorwork. I made it in the round and the chart design was pretty seamless, they go all around the cowl yet every other row is off by half(if that makes sense). It did take me quite a while to complete and it did get rather dull after a while. Being a newb to colorwork it's expected, it really took me patience and concentration, so i threw a section of striping in there to speed up the process. I used Kitchener stitch to finish it up and this gave me a chance to really understand the stitches and how they intertwined; Kitchener has always been confusing to me(although i've done it successfully a handful of times). Check out my project page in Ravelry here.

I was gifted the Handbrake cowl and have completed one in the Bernat Mosaic's 'Optimistic' colorway. The pattern is simple as is the patterning, however the color-changes in this yarn(all though lovely) really drowned it out. I wasn't able to use the whole skein as i had planned either as it would have made it just too tall. So, i'm trying my hand at another with a more subdued colorway in yellow; unfortunately i don't have much information about this yarn as it was from a destash and came with no label.

A colorwork pillow was also completed, featuring the mushroom. This was also made in the round, and it was more of a swatch really, to see how the charts would look if i made one from the bottom up while the other from side to side. There is a difference which is very reminiscent of tunisian crochet. This was a swatch for one of my future works, which may(or may not) have something to do with the cloud cowl......

Crochet-wise, i've been working on my granny square blanket on and off really. I did have to complete two amigurumi bears for an order. I don't have any specific crochet projects in the works at the moment, but one usually turns up. I have been spinning as well, and have finished my best skein to date. This was some Into the Whirled Falkland fiber which i made into a 3ply skein of 320 yards. It's amazing, i would say it's around a DK weight, all though there are some thinner/thicker spots in it as well. What i love about it the most is that it's a gradient yarn, i'm still in awe that i made this. I plan to make it into a shawl so i could really play on the colors and use as much as i possibly can. I'm currently spinning some gorgeous fiber from Tasteless Designs(check out her etsy shop here) with the colorway  name 'Spellbook'. This is 4oz of amazingly soft superfine merino. I already know this will make some awesome finger-less gloves.... i gotta say that i love this color combo.

Last but definitely not least, i got to meet up with an awesome YouTube friend, YarnYenta247(check out her YouTube channel here)! She has been traveling cross country and on her way back to NY, she just happened to be staying 15 minutes from me, so how could i not?! It was a great time, i got to meet her and her husband and discussed yarn and travel among other things. Wonderful couple, if the chance comes up i would love to get together again. All in call that made my last two weeks a huge win. Check out my video for more blurbs.