cottington's so crafty: When Voolenvine, Hazel Knits and Joji Locatelli Meet

Sunday, April 10, 2016

When Voolenvine, Hazel Knits and Joji Locatelli Meet

Oh, y'all....how I love this cowl! Shall I count the ways???

I'll spare you, LOL.

Pardon my crazy lips :O

Blocking creases and my healing lip aside, this 3 Color Cashmere Cowl is crazy awesome. It happily knit up in two weeks (thank YOU, Joji Locatelli - FB page - for a mostly-mindless pattern). The pattern is crazy easy, though I did have to back out a few times in the lace portion...missing yarn-overs and whatnot. Silly stuff.

What WAS difficult, though, was the choosing of yarn. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to use Voolenvine yarn (FB page). I believe I originally planned this out, and I had ordered three colorways, enlisting Kristin's help in complimenting colors. I had wanted to use Dirty on Purpose and Nevermore, both on the Wolke base, a lovely merino/cashmere/nylon blend, but that proved an ill match. Nevermore didn't stand out enough against the Dirty on Purpose, especially where it mattered in those thin stripes. Royal Amber was the one constant, LOL; it seemed to look good with anything! I pulled out a million skeins of yarn, knowing I just couldn't use Nevermore. And, as luck would have it, because I really WANTED to use stash yarn, I was unable to locate the right sort of purple or teal (first-world problems, but LEGIT problems, people), which I knew would be great contenders. So, I had to put off casting on until a trip to Twisted in Portland. I knew THEY would probably have a lovely skein of Hazel Knits (FB page that would work. I ended up finding just the thing in the Entice MCN, in the colorway Orchid.

Thank ME, the photographer, for capturing THAT side of the cowl ;)

It all worked out in the end, and the cowl only took me about two weeks from start to finish, which was awesome (though it felt LONGER, what with fingering weight yarn, aha!).