Cowl – That Crafty Cara

Details:

Pattern: Baking Doodle Cowl, by Jamie Lomax of Pacific Knit Co., the pattern is being released TODAY!

Yarn: Knit Picks’ “Wool of the Andes Sport”* in colorways Baltic Heather, Blossom Heather, Camel Heather, Chestnut, Papaya Heather, Turmeric, White & Wonderland Heather

Needles: US 4 & 5 16-inch circulars

Modifications: I knit my cowl a little taller than suggested by the pattern, simply because Ren and I couldn’t cut any of the five charts because we loved them so much. I don’t recommend doing this as it makes it hard to see the charts when you’re actually wearing the cowl. I also used duplicate stitch for the dark pink stitches on rows 18 and 19 of the stand mixer chart.

When the email showed up in my inbox letting me know that I’d been chosen to be a test knitter for this pattern, I was so thrilled! I’ve been watching Jamie create her whimsical designs for a couple of years now, and promised myself that I’d allow myself to sign up to test knit once grad school was over. When the baking-themed pattern was announced, I was so happy because it’s absolutely perfect for my dear Renaissance, who loves all things baking.

I really enjoyed creating this project because it was a combined effort with Renaissance. At first I thought I’d keep it secret, but then I was having a really hard time choosing a color palette because I didn’t want to end up picking colors she wouldn’t actually like, so I brought her into the fold and she gladly went about picking colors and charts.

A heads-up to anyone considering making one of these: There’s more than two colors per row in many of the charts. I can rip along with traditional fair isle/stranded knitting because it doesn’t have more than two colors per row, but throw that third color in and BAM, slows me down to a crawl. Something to consider if that sort of thing matters to you.

Another note: The stand mixer chart, due to the almost-intarsia color blocking, ends up really tight, so you’ll want to knit that one with extra loose floats.

Oh my goodness, this cowl makes me so happy. It’s adorable! Ren loves it too, and I’m definitely going to purchase some of Jamie’s other doodle collections to make up some of her other themed cowls in the future! (I’m especially eyeing the winter/Christmas one, and the arctic one.)

Thank you again, Jamie, for selecting me to test knit this for you, I had a great time with it!

Click here to see this project’s Ravelry page

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Happy Friday, everyone! So many people joked throughout this week about how long it seemed, even after it was a shorter week with the holiday on Monday! Our week was busy with lots of school and band things—I may have practically lived at my kids’ schools most evenings this week!

Baking Doodle Cowl Test Knit: I’ve made a dedicated effort to put in some serious time on the Baking Doodle Cowl test knit because I was pretty far behind at the beginning of the week due to losing most of my regularly-scheduled knitting time (ie. Sitting in the van during kids’ music lessons and rehearsals) to my kids being sick the past couple weeks and not leaving the house. I’m now about 25% done with it, which is great, except for the part where I was supposed to be 50% done with it by yesterday. There will be much knitting over the weekend.

New FQS Pattern: I put in an amazing day of work on Monday and I can now boast that all my half-square triangles are sewn and trimmed! I have another big sewing day scheduled for this upcoming Monday, which I’m hoping boasts some reality-bending wormhole capabilities that will allow me to progress on this at a phenomenal rate, hitherto unknown to mankind.

I am using the “French Quarter” fabric collection from Maywood Studios, and it’s going to be a lovely blue-and-white quilt. I can’t wait for this to come together!

Super Secret Project: I have another project on my plate that didn’t materialize until just this week, even though it’s genius and I’m really annoyed that it didn’t occur to me until one random day during a random conversation with a few of my children. I don’t even want to commit to it because I know I don’t have the time AT ALL—but it’s too perfect an opportunity to pass up, so I’m launching myself into the future, laughing hysterically and hoping I can pull this off.

Spring Tea Party: The girls want to throw one, so we’re talking about it in loose terms at this point.

Garden: The seedlings are coming along. I had five Delphinium sprouts at the beginning of the week, but now I think I only have two. I’ve rarely been successful in nurturing Delphiniums to maturity, so it’s not surprising. Annoying and frustrating, but not surprising.

My little countertop herb garden is out of control and the plants are cramming into the light source every other day, despite my dedicated efforts to pruning them back almost every day. There has been a lot of dill in a lot of recipes lately. Michael’s not the biggest fan of dill, but thankfully, it’s not terribly strong when it’s fresh. Perhaps he’ll acquire a taste for it with the insane amount he’s eating now. Also, this experience is helping me to lose my fear of over-harvesting herbs. I cut these plants back to practical baldness and you cannot tell in two days’ time. It’s good to gain firsthand experience with that because I’ve always been scared to use the herbs in my garden in truly meaningful ways because I’m afraid I’ll kill them with each reaping. I’m learning that that is absolutely not true!

Renaissance College Plans: We’ve received notification from two of the schools she applied to that she’s been accepted! She goes in this weekend to audition for a music scholarship, so fingers crossed that it goes well! She’s torn between continuing her study of music or going to a technical college in pursuit of a degree in Culinary Arts/Pastry Baking. We’re pushing her to just prepare for both, see which one will be most financially viable, and then make a decision from there. (And seriously, I wish I had known about the pastry baking option when I was young! What a cool career idea!)