The Sculling Cowl

The Sculling Cowl  I have always said I would rather gnaw my leg off than do lace - however this is a simple lace pattern with a 7 stitch repeat and 14 rows and even I can manage to do it. Well me and stitch markers placed every 14 stitches. One can never have too many stitch markers when doing lace in my opinion. I can manage to screw up even the simplest of patterns.  My mind just starts to wander, it was here a minute ago paying attention and then well.....it just went on walkabout.   I see knitting as a Zen practice.  Lace requires one to be focused and present.  Elizabeth Zimmerman may have been able to knit with her eyes closed or read a story to children and knit at the same time, but my brain just implodes and I then spend as much time un-knitting as I did knitting.  I can only do one thing at a time.

But a lace cowl it is for a Yule gift.  I did a quick, down and dirty gauge (it is a cowl folks) and then did the 280 stitch cast on. I added one more stitch at the end so that I could do the K2tog when I joined the two ends to start knitting in the round thus losing the extra stitch I'd added. I find this little trick makes a better join and gets rid of that sloppy long piece that my joins always seem to have on the first row.  Maybe one day I will be a good enough knitter to have perfect little joins without this little dodge - but until then...... I will stick to my dodgy knitting practices.

I have to say, so far I am really, really enjoying this pattern. It is also a lesson in reading charts. I have always been a “just write it out please”, but I am beginning to understand why so many peeps love charts. I've just read Barbara Walker’s treatise on charts and there value in her book:  A Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns  so it was time to stretch my knitting skills. 

In the meantime:

How I think I look while knitting

What I really look like when knitting