I’m in a knitting and sewing slump lately … I’ve started the sleeves for my Summer Suit jumper and all that moss stitch honestly bums me out. Then I picked up the Calm jumper, almost finished it, only to realize my head wouldn’t fit through the neck opening. In a nutshell: I needed some mindless knitting for instant gratification. I’ve been looking for a suitable pattern ever since I bought two skeins of Malabrigo Rios in the “sunset” colourway and finally settled on this cowl pattern. My Seawall cowl has become one of my wardrobe staples (and to think I was so sceptical of cowls at first!); also a bright, vivid colour like that will be guaranteed to cheer me up in the dreary winter months!

It turned out that I was wrong about the mindless knitting thing: I tried casting on the 200 sts that were required using the longtail cast-on, but always ran out of yarn. I then went with the single cast-on, but only managed to knit a couple of rows until I discovered that I had twisted the stitches when I joined for knitting in the round. Several. Times. Oh boy. Such fun was had! I got it right eventually, though.

After that, the pattern was a joy to knit. I especially love that the stitch pattern looks great from both sides! It has a distinct look to it, but doesn’t overshadow the vibrant colour of the yarn in any way. Just one small problem with the pattern: It states, both in the file and the written pattern description on Ravelry, that you need 15mm needles. That’s incorrect. It’s a simple conversion error from US needle sizes (US size 10 in this case) – you need 6mm needles. I’ll probably message the designer about this, too, because it’d be rather annoying if someone cast on on 15mm needles or even went out to buy 15mm needles just for this cowl. 

 I had a lot of yarn left after finishing the cowl, so I decided to make a set. I wanted something simple to show off the yarn. I think the Felicity pattern does just that perfectly. However, this is the TINIEST hat for an adult. I mean, I’m pretty sure my goddaughter could wear it, and she’s five. I wish I’d have looked on the project pages for this pattern, because basically every single person who has made this hat said so. Then again, I nearly ran out of yarn (had to do a steeper rate of decreases) so I guess everything worked out for the best!

Yarn: Malabrigo Rios “Sunset” (worsted, 100% merino)

Pattern: Celle Infinity Scarf by Brenda Lavell, Felicity by Wanett Clyde