All the Knitalongs, All the Time

It's starting to look like February is going to be my month of knitalongs.

For one thing, there's the Zeccola Cowl Knitalong happening in my Ravelry group. I usually like to keep my samples nice, meaning I don't often wear them, so I wanted to knit a second cowl to have to wear out and about. I cast on for mine on Sunday afternoon and worked on it while making a big vat of soup for dinner.

I'm making a few modifications to the pattern this time around. For starters, I am using thinner yarn (fingering rather than sport weight), so I went down a couple of needle sizes. That means the cowl is going to be a bit narrower. I'm also working only three rounds between colorwork sections, so the stranded work is going to be pretty much continuous for the whole cowl. And I'm using only two colors this time, which will mean fewer ends to weave in, but as both yarns are slightly variegated, there's a bit of color play even in the rounds that are worked with only one strand.

Last night I cast on a new project for another knitalong, this time as part of my LYS's yearlong "Shawl Adventure." The first pattern is Laura Aylor's First Point of Libra, a squishy garter stitch shawl designed to show off a gradient. I'm using the gradient mini skein set I bought at Miss Babs at MDSW last year as well as a skein of handspun moorit-colored Shetland for the main color. Here's the yarn all together before I cast on:

I don't have a photo of my progress, but it's just a small strip of garter stitch, so not much to see at this point. The shawl has an interesting modular construction -- you start with the vertical strip worked in the gradient, then pick up stitches along one side in the main color. Following Laura's recommendation, I started with the darkest color in my gradient so that the neon green in the set will be at the top of the strip and the bottom of the horizontal stripe near the bottom. The knitting is fairly easy and mindless at this point; all I have to remember to do is to slip the last stitch of each row and click my row counter (there are about 50 rows of each color, so I need a reliable way to keep count).

There is no photographic evidence of my lunchtime knitting just yet (really, do you need a photo of black socks?), but it is moving along. I'd avoid it if I could, but I am working on it whenever I can if only so I can be finished with the horrid things. Next year, I'll remember to pick out the color on my own or, better yet, buy something from a store.