commence creation dance

An example of a culinary creation dance.

The most beautiful children's film that I have ever seen is Hayao Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro". If you haven't seen it yet, watch it, if you have children, show it to them.

A spirit, the "keeper of the forest" named Totoro playes a big role in this film. Actually, there are three of them, the big Totoro (O-Totoro), the smaller Totoro (Chu-Totoro) and the smallest Totoro (Chibi-Totoro), mirroring the humans in this film, the father, Satsuki, the older sister, and Mei, the younger sister. I think ultimately Totoro is supposed to be a Tanuki, but that's not very important.

There are many, many, many fans of Totoro and there are many knitting and crochet patterns for making one. I won't list them all here, just do a pattern search on Ravelry for "Totoro" and you'll find a multitude of things, from stuffies to mittens to dresses to sweaters. I always wanted to knit one, myself. But toy knitting is fiddly, involves sewing and is definitely time intensive. And while there are many Totoro items on my queue, while watching anime it's just easier to knit a big lace shawl (at least to me).

Then a dear friend of mine wanted to get rid of one ball of super bulky yarn. It was bright blue, with turquoise and purple variegations, very pretty. And since I'm a collector of single balls, I took it and knew I'd figure something out. I don't remember exactly how I got the idea of making a Totoro out of it, but that's what I did.

The construction wasn’t difficult: magic 8 cast-on, 14 stitches on each side, keep knitting back and forth on one side until you have a rectangular patch, then start knitting in the round, picking up 8 stitches at each side. Keep knitting in the round for a while, then decrease 4 sts per row on the sides (paired decreases). Decrease 16 stitches overall (I should have timed them better, but who cares), then knit straight up.
 

Once you’ve knit enough, do shortrow patches on the sides for the ears. Over the spot where the decreases are located, do shortrows on both sides, first with five stitches between the wrap and turns (I used Japanese shortrows, because I like them best), then with three, then bind off. Originally I wanted to felt the body, but although the yarn says handwash, it didn't felt - even with a pair of jeans. Probably not enough agitation.

For the eyes I took inspiration from my Mountain Goth slippers and knit two out of my trusty Nuvola and handfelted them. But with the stomach I ran into trouble. I did knit it out of Nuvola as well and handfelted it, but it seems that larger pieces of Nuvola will not felt as well and develop icky scratchy fuzzy knots! And a Totoro with a scratchy stomach is not good. So I knit another stomach patch out of Nuvola, this time on 2mm needles and let it be like that.

Now I had all the ingredients, but hit the roadblock of sewing it all together. Things got incredibly busy and poor Totoro stayed like this for a while. Then I bought a shirt that needed altering to bring out its full potential. So I altered it and in the process discovered that sewing maybe isn't so bad after all. I just needed to do it while either listening to music or while watching a film I already knew.

So I took up Totoro again and started sewing on the stomach patch, which came out slightly off-kilter. Never mind. Then I searched for yarn to do the markings on the stomach and took apart some of my purple super-bulky alpaca for those. I sewed on the eyes (one slightly higher than the other, but this I did correct) and used the alpaca for the nose as well. I faced the problem of the mouth, which is rather distinctive and did manage to make a mouth shape that pleased me, but he just looks better without it. Finally, I needed the right color for his whiskers - originally I wanted to use leftovers from the butterfly fingerless gloves that I made a while ago, but couldn't find any, so I found some light blue yarn, which worked just as well.

 And here he is!

 

 That's my Totoro.

 

For the stuffing, I unravelled an old project made almost entirely of plastic yarn, took an old pair of blue tights, put it inside Totoro and stuffed him, distributing the yarn to make the ideal Totoro shape. He's actually quite heavy, so he's able to stand on his own without a weight at the bottom.

Here you can see the decreases quite well - I should have made them higher, so that the illusion of arms comes out more, but on the whole, I'm very pleased with him as he is.


 



He's definitely the new star of my collection - and stands out quite a bit. When I think of all the fun places I can take him, I'm getting giddy ... and ok, maybe a little embarrassed to be telling you this. But since there are no comic or anime conventions to go to in Vienna, I must find my anime nerd outlets somehow :)

looking for signs of spring in Hungary


Yes, it's been a while since I posted. The stomach virus killed my motivation and energy to do anything but sit and knit. I do have some pictures and a whole post on my 250th project prepared, but let me share something else with you today. Yesterday my mother and I drove to Hungary to have another look at the Eszterháza palace built by the Esterhazy family in Fertöd, a couple of kilometers over the Hungarian border. Here's a Wikipedia link (in English). 

The picture above shows the garden side, I didn't take a picture of the front, because the courtyard is currently being renovated and that doesn't look too nice. As you can see above and from the Wiki link, it used to be painted in what is called "Schönbrunn yellow", after the Schönbrunn palace in Vienna, which is also yellow. In an early attempt of corporate branding, Emperor Joseph II. ordered all buildings erected by the state and the Habsburg family to be painted in that color and so it became fashionable to paint everything in that yellow.


However, Schönbrunn used to be painted pink and grey and so did Estzerháza and while Schönbrunn will probably never be pink and grey again, Estzerháza is being renovated to show its initial coloring, which suits it much better. The beautiful gardens - also reminiscent of Schönbrunn, but less extensive and without the hills, fountains and follies - are also in need of renovation. There's a dell that probably used to be a fountain and you can tell where there were extensive flowerbeds and broad gravel paths to walk on, but those are all overgrown with grass.




Left over are the beautiful yew trees. Those attracted my attention the first time around when we went there a year and a half ago or so.

Back then, the grass was bleached to a pale green, the sun was wintry and faded and the black-green yew trees made such a stark contrast ... I still wish I had taken my camera that time. Ah well, I'll go again to capture it. As it is, I like the yew trees even now - I could probably stay a whole day and take pictures every hour to see how the light and shadows change.



But we actually went there to look for signs of spring and to take in the sun. I am extremely fond of spring flowers and while Vienna is showing definite signs, in the areas North and West of the city spring usually progresses far more slowly, so South we went.

And I was right, the sun was hot and the gardens of Eszterháza were teeming with violets and other wildflowers, bugs, ants and birds. There were so many violets that you could actually smell them, a sweet, delicious smell. Driving to and from Fertöd, we could see plum and peach trees in bloom already.

Apart from having fun with my new tripod, I had no fun at all messing with my camera settings. The blues in the violets and in these tiny star-like flowers which are native to this part of Hungary and are called Scilla buekkensis nearly drove me to madness, both in the food setting set on red (made the greens far too golden) and the macro setting (old problem of not catching the blue correctly).

I wonder why my camera can take pictures of the blue sky without any troubles, but these intense and unique blues and violets make it go haywire. Maybe it's the ultraviolet component. There ought to be a bee setting. Still, I think these came out rather well. Now back to knitting (and baseball anime).

not as much fun as I wanted it to be

So, my exam is over. I am a bona fide historian with an MA degree (actually the direct translation would be Master of Philosophy). The exam itself wasn't very spectacular, which is why it's strange that the university is keeping the actual details of what happens in the exam a secret. Or so it seems. They finally have webpages where they tell you what forms to use and what formats your thesis should have and a hundred other things, but nothing about the actual exam. Anyway, it was even fun and afterwards I felt extremely happy.

Everything seemed to be going well. My room was clean and things were stored away better than when I first moved in. My guests arrived and helped me carry my 10 000 bags over to my mother's flat where I'll be staying until next Thursday or so while they're using my little shoebox as a base. We had sparkling wine and roasted vegetables and all kinds of delicious things and I went to sleep happy about my new status.

The next morning, I wondered whether my thesis had been entered into the university library catalogue yet. And it has! It's even findable in two of the important meta-catalogues. I took a screenshot as a souvenir.

Then I read the news that there had been a huge earthquake and tsunami in Japan and started following the news updates. I only watched one live report and had to turn it off after a couple of minutes. It was terrible and terrifying and I'm still watching the developments around the Fukushima nuclear plant and hope they'll be able to get the situation under control.

Why care about Japan? I'm an absolute nerd about anime (Japanese animated films and television series) and manga (Japanese comics) and I admire and appreciate many aspects of Japanese culture, even if I can't understand or empathize with all of them. And now that country that I am so interested in is in terrible trouble and I can't do very much except watch in horror.

So, not the best day. Then this morning I finally read the book that has been waiting for me for a month or so, about the last days of the Second World War in Berlin and the time immediately afterwards from the perspective of a twelve-year-old girl and that has also contributed to a rather depressive mood.

Then I fled. Outside, the sun was shining, the wind was warm and I had to buy catfood anyway. I went by my favorite silversmith's to see if she was already working and to see if maybe she had her baby son with her - three and a half months old now. I had dropped off a pair of knitted socks in February and wanted to see if she had received them. She had! And he was wearing them and she was really happy with them, since knitted socks were an item on one of the "must have" lists and she knew noone who could knit socks!

The yarn is Lang Jawoll Cotton Jacquard.

Anyway, that cheered me up immensively and a little detour through the Museumsquartier cheered me up even more. I've also found a new song to learn that has consoled me a little - a German folk song from the 16th century that Johannes Brahms did a litte work on. It's an incredibly gentle and romantic song from the perspective of a man waking his beloved in the morning and the melody is lovely as well.

So it's been ups and downs. Maybe the best time to finish my Herzblut shawl, which is eating yarn like a very hungry moth! But I'm getting closer and closer to the final row and can't wait to see it blocked and in all its glory. So much for now - the next post will be about my crazy camera settings featuring psychedelic pictures of knitted fabric.

the triumphant return of the knitting capricorn

Yes, that's right - the thesis is DONE! 241 pages, 1211 footnotes almost 2MB filesize. I overshot the target of the laser pointed at the moon and built a whole secret moonbase!

There's still a lot of formal stuff to do and of course the exam, but graduation is on the horizon. As is cleaning up my room ... the mountains of clothing, yarn and paper need to be sorted and stored away and there are plenty of other things on my to-do list.

I have been knitting. Sometimes furiously. Sometimes furtively. But I had no time or energy to take pictures, even though there has been a lot of sunlight during this winter. That shall be remedied as soon as possible, seeing how I have a new digital camera now.

Remember this one?

I finally had the chance to make a real one! Very appropriate for the year of the rabbit.

Anime original for comparison:

it's getting very near the end

Last weekend there was a much-needed break with *nothing* happening, except light cleaning and baseball anime which would have lead to the thesis being completely abandoned, if the main character hadn't put me off at the end of the second season - Goro you moron, you can't leave Toshi alone! (not a link to second season - that's the 6th season there, wait a minute, there is no Toshi in the 6th season ... nooooooooooooo!).

Bishies and baseball, a deadly combination to the anime nerd academic. Now I'm back to the grindstone and my thoughts are finally starting to work again, the quotations are starting to turn into pieces of text and the end can't be that far off.

The best thing that has happened is knitting - finally. I almost forgot how nice it is to watch something and knit or go someplace and take the knitting along with you to pass the time. I'm working on a little cowl with some of the reward yarn I got this summer. But no pictures yet, because I'd first have to figure out how to get the card into the computer (or look for the cable).

Znaim/Znojmo in the Czech Republic.

And today my mother and I made a little run to Ikea, because Ikea has these lap cushions with a hard plastic surface for laptops. Genius! Especially since my touchpad is a touch too touchy for precise work, so I need my mouse. Now I can finally write with my computer on my lap and my mouse by its side - I'm sure the thesis will grow much faster. The other thing I really needed was a breakfast bowl of my own. Now I have one. And then there are always some things that you want and kind of need - new, colorful bedclothes, a new large cushion for the couch, a little plastic set thing for the couch table ... but I did not get the measuring cups, because my old ones are better.

Fotographed straight down

I hope this will be one of the last thesis posts ... I've finally recovered from the "so tired of my thesis" part, but I still want it to be over and done with. Which means - back to work, I guess!

sneaky March - musings on baby shirts

The sun is shining right in my window, so I can't watch anime - right now I'm on the Deathnote bandwagon and it's a little disappointing. I guess if you haven't seen much anime, this might strike you as the awesomest anime ever, but it's rather plotholey, shark-jumpey and too shounen (male-targeted) by half. Interesting that they've made the evil guy so good-looking and the good guy so strangely bird-like. Also, the one smart female character is treated like shit by her fiance and is killed off in one episode right at the beginning, while the annoying fanservice female character stays on and on and on ... gah. It is still an interesting thought experiment, though, which is always the best thing about anime.

Ok, enough of that. On to knitting. Lately, I've kind of been inspired to knit a few more baby things. I think the intended recipient must have been born already, I'm just waiting for the email. I wanted to use up some of the cotton yarn I had bought and so at first, I thought about making a knitted dress with large block stripes in turquoise and red, but it didn't look so hot (different yarns) and it would have fit a five-year-old.

I've actually already made a baby shirt a while ago, in summer 2008, as part of a set of playclothes, to try and use up cotton yarn leftovers (Lana Grossa Toccata, to be precise). I never got around to the pants, though. I had to reknit this because I wasn't careful enough about carrying the yarn between the stripes and there were large gaps and it looked awful. So, reknitting. And reknitting. And reknitting. I hate reknitting with cotton yarn. But I really love these colors together:

This was knit from the top down, following the construction I had put to use on an unfinished project that needs a lot of rethinking. I decided to end it with a rolled brim, because nothing else looked good. Consequently, I've been using the rolled brim in all my other baby shirts, too.

Leftovers can provide a lot of inspiration. As I repeatedly mentioned when writing about the Snow Bunny, I love the Lana Grossa Latte yarn - they also make rather a nice blue. So when I ended up with over half (too lazy to measure) a ball of the white Latte, I decided to buy a ball of blue latte and give in to this year's fashion. Yes, the French blue and white stripes have returned in force (from doing a turn in the 80s and again in the mid-90s). I love that look. Can't wear it, but I love it. So, why not make small children wear it, they can't defend themselves and look cute in it. (Muahahaha). I give you the Classic Baby Shirt. Done bottom-up, because ... no reason. I love it, it's soft and beautiful.

After this, I was on a roll. Having decided to abandon the block stripes, I thought about how little texture I had been using for the baby clothes I had made so far (with a few exceptions, but still) and how little lace! That had to be remedied. I wanted some sort of smocking effect, but not too much. And something lacy and textured. Well, one of those stitches that is really, really easy and never leaves my brain is the Trinity Stitch. Makes little cluster balls that look like berries.

I gave it the rather stark name of One Texture, I guess a cuter name would be Summer Raspberry, but let's not get too twee here. The yarn is Lana Grossa Bingo and it has been in my stash for a long time, so yay! More space for new yarn. I wanted to do a different top construction and ended up with this kimono-like thing - I just hope it actually fits. As usual, worries about arm and head size abounded, since I don't actually have a real life baby to put this on.

From One Texture to Texture Two (aka Pie Crust Shirt or something). This time, I chose the Classic Baby Shirt construction again, but decided to do a twisted stitch rib on the straps so they wouldn't grow so much. The yarn is Lana Grossa Linea Pura Organico, which has plenty of beautiful colors. Originally it should have been a summer hat - yeah, just what a baby needs, a heavy cotton summer hat. Design fail.

I think I could go on and on knitting baby shirts. But actually, I've gone back to hats, since I decided to make a few more things that can be used immediately. It's rather boring having to wait to use all the handknitted stuff, no? A bit of instant gratification never hurt. So, because there must be some cutesy things, here's a cutesy Litte Flower Hat, knit using Lana Grossa Linea Pura Flora.

And that's it. Knitting a slightly larger hat with a bit of a lace pattern in the pink Flora and watching Deathnote. Maybe to get in the mood for the next baby thing (not for the same baby), which involves hot pink and black yarn and skulls ...

i think the sun has gone forever

There's a reason why there hasn't been a post in almost a week. The sun has completely disappeared and taking pictures has been nearly impossible for a while. On Wednesday I had a glimpse of something resembling sunshine, but then it went away just as fast. Another reason is that I've finally been able to find Elizabeth George's "Careless in Red" at the public library - I've been waiting for this for quite a while. Now that I've read it, I must say, I felt a little flat about this one, especially after "What Came Before He Shot Her". The solution was a tad too obvious for my taste, but I won't spoil it here.

Then I came across "Hue & Cry" (1947) which caused me no end of pleasure, because I have come to love British films, especially the late 1930s, war-time and post-war films, so I had to watch it. It's a most adventurous story about a gang of boys finding out that crooks pass messages through a boys' newspaper - there's a definite touch of Kästner's Emil and the Detectives, but the film is more brutal and very British. Through it I have finally made the acquaintance of Alistair Sim, who was once the rector of Edinburgh University and who will never leave my memory again. (There's *na-hemm* gin in mine.) Add to all that some manga read online and well - knitting time got converted into reading time.

So now I can't do much but wait for the sun to come out so I can take a picture of my 200th project, which has been finished for a while, it just needs a big button and all the ends need to be hidden. Then there are my beautiful Plum Blossoms in the Snow mittens which need plum blossoms and snow flakes, even though they're nice enough as they are now:

And of course while waiting for the sun I can knit even more - I've started my fingerless gloves inspired by the coloring of the Sweet Elfin Baby cap and am up to the thumb on the first, but wrestling with how many stitches to use for the thumb ...

Guess if this sunless thing goes on, I'll have to do a post "from the archives". Maybe one about my sad attempts at berets or about my fleeting affair with socks or about my true love for all things mittenish ...

P.S.:

quick action

Usually it takes me a while to finish things. I hate weaving ends, sewing on buttons, seaming and blocking. It's all too boring. But once in a while, when I'm feeling inspired, things get finished rather quickly. Those red gloves were finished in a flash - ends woven in, blocked and all. And something else got finished rather quickly, too.

My snow bunny from the second episode of Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou. First I used the figure-8 cast-on to cast on 8 stitches, increased 4 stitches every row for a bit, then 8 stitches every row for a bit. Then knit straight, then increases again and finally scattered decreases to create the round bum. I think it's a pretty accurate copy, except the nose is maybe a touch too pointy and the ears are a bit longer, too. But I don't think that detracts from its cuteness. I just wish the light was better.

milk and snow bunnies

There are new summer yarns at the yarn store. Deliiiiiiicious summer yarns. My favorite shade of pink. Shiny stuff. Yarn that looks like it should be in a Klimt painting. Vibrant colors - for some reason I'm really being drawn to orange and yellow. Lots of tape yarn (have no use for tape yarn, but it's pretty). Incredibly soft yarn. Exciting new fibers.

See, continental Europe hasn't picked up on all the exciting new fibers out there. And there are a lot less handdyers and handspinners and small yarn companies. There are some, but definitely not as many as in the US, UK or Canada (don't know about Australia). So ever since my favorite yarn company, Lana Grossa, started releasing a line of organic yarns with non-common fibers, I've been over the moon and tempted to try them all. I got a lot of single balls for cowls, mittens and the like.

I've tried their cotton, bamboo and soy yarn, cotton and soy yarn (soy! unheard of! and there's even soy sock yarn) and the wool and alpaca yarn, and dang, I never got around to trying their yarn with maize fiber. But! Yesterday I bought a ball of yarn consisting of cotton and milk protein. It's called Latte and it's soft and pretty and I just wanted to try it.

I've been wanting to try it ever since I saw it. I wanted to get my hands on that milk yarn and squoosh it until it liquidized. I wanted to knit something with it. Something white. Something cute. Something squooshable.

Enter Natsume Yuujinchou, second season, second episode. Natsume Takashi, the protagonist, is able to see all the spirits that live in everything and can inhabit anything in Japan. Some of these are evil, some are good, many are neutral. While he's trying to return the names of the spirits that his grandmother collected in a book, he also comes across spirits that have turned evil for a reason or need his help and he tries his best to help them. It's sweet and sometimes sad and makes you a little wistful, but it isn't one of those anime that take a katana to your heart. For a katana-to-your-heart-dealing-with-spirits anime, try Mushishi.

In this second episode, a forest guardian spirit living in a statue needs Natsume's help but tries to possess him first. Natsume evades possession and the spirit, Gen, possesses a snow bunny that Natsume made instead.

Yeah, you can see where that ball of Latte is going.

owls and cowls

Owls seem to be a real trend since 2009. Someone discovered that you can make cables look like an owl (like this or like this) and now there are owls everywhere. Apart from the many, many owl toys, crocheted and knitted, those cable owls are on everything, owl hats, owl gloves, owl sweaters, owl baby sweaters, owl cardigans, owl socks, owl cushions, owl bags, owl bibs and whatever else can be decorated with this cable pattern. Owls are hot and I don't get it. I prefer snowmen/women, myself.

There are patterns for owl cowls as well. How could there not be? Cowls were extremely hot in late 2008 and all through 2009, but now the trend to cover your neck has differentiated itself into various categories. Cowls are still being designed and offered, but the real run is currently on kerchiefs (hot, but leveling off), infinity scarves (pretty hot, but not as hot) and hooded scarves (increasingly hot). Now that's a trend I can get behind (even though I don't really like a bandwagon). A warm neck is very nice and a cowl uses much less yarn than a scarf, so I can buy a ball or two of pretty yarn, knit it up very quickly and not have to spend too much money.

So, since the sun has refused to come out of hiding (yesterday my mother and I chased it to Lower Austria and drove up a mountain to get to it) and since I'm kind of stalling before starting my 200th project (200 put up on Ravelry anyway) and since the baby hat I started has given me only pain and is on a time-out ... it's time for a walk through the cowls.

Between Bern and Lucerne in Switzerland, there is a wonderful stretch of country where you can get all sorts of deliciousness. There's Kirschtorte from Zug, big gingerbread from Lucerne which is cut into slices and eaten with butter and giant meringues from Bern. All to be had just by driving along a single road. And at the end of that particular road lies Huttwil with its Spycher-Handwerk farm/yarn/fleece/woolly things shop and yarny goodness! A giant barn full of yarn and unspun wool and we only had 30 minutes before they closed! So I grabbed a beautiful 50/50 silk/merino mix (among other things *cough*) and only a little later, I made two cowls. I love the color so much - it's like the sky at dusk and dawn when it's kind of lavender, yet still a beautiful blue. I simply took my favorite lace patterns - that sprig or sometimes also cockleshell lace of the first cowl is basically my favorite lace pattern - and knit. These are the Cowl for Dusk and Dawn and the Cowl for Dawn and Dusk.

 

 

Soon after these, I knit another one, using the colors of the season, grey and petrol, and a simple but effective lace pattern, feather and fan, calling it the Fleeting Fashion Colors Cowl. I donated it to my mother, though, because she was cold and wanted a cowl. The yarn I used was Lana Grossa Laseta and I found these two balls next to each other in the sales bin of my favorite yarn shop. I can totally tell that this picture was taken in very early spring 2009 (besides, I actually know it was taken then), because of the mallow plant in the background

Then, I was a little cowled out. But after the 2009 Knit in Public Day in Vienna's Stadtpark, where I left with a few goodies and even more purchases, at the completely wrong time (really hot summer), I made a neckwarmer. I used the Cashmere Neckwarmer pattern by Kim K. and a freebie skein of Malabrigo Gruesa (first time I used Malabrigo ... sigh) and let myself be inspired by one of my favorite anime, Seirei no Moribito. Then began the hunt for the perfect button and I found one, too, but I have yet to sew it on and block the Seirei no Moribito Neckwarmer, even though I could use it right now (yes, that's a little silly).

The anime theme stayed right with me. After obsessing for a long time about Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto and its hero, Akizuki Youjiro, and coming across the beautiful Lana Grossa Fauna (so soft! with alpaca) in exactly the right shade of blue, I knit a rather simple, but warm and (to me) effective cowl (for You-san). Once anime and knitting come together, it's a slippery slope. See, You-san wears a dark blue cowl and he uses it to hide his face when he doesn't want to be recognised and I felt just like that at the time. It isn't the most impressive cowl, the stitch pattern is simple and easily lost, but I love it and its understatedness.

And then my favorite yarn store (the Pingouin on Alserstraße) put out the good stuff. Pure, thick cashmere. Lana Grossa Solo Cashmere, to be exact. In a shade that was impossible to photograph, an ultraviolet purple. In the pictures it looks blue, but it really, really isn't. So I got two balls of purple and one ball of grey and set out to create a cowl that would pay homage to a great female anime character, Re-L, from Ergo Proxy. It matches her eyeshadow ... (slippery slope, I said). When the weather is damp, it smells a littly goaty :) The fairisle pattern was a bit painful - how to create something that looks random, but isn't? It all turned out well in the end, I think.

So I actually have six cowls (and a neckwarmer) at my personal disposal. Two for spring/fall, four for winter. The last one so far is for the coldest winter weather only and so I fittingly called it Winter Armor. It is the simplest of designs, because I didn't really want to bother with something extra-fancy - now I kind of wish I had, but I don't want to undo it all. Maybe with the next cowl. Gedifra Highland Alpaca, the yarn I used, made an appearance in the yarn store in the fall of 2008 and I had been lusting for it ever since, but couldn't find a pattern to justify buying a ball or two. Cowl to the rescue!

There's one more cowl (ok, probably a few more, but I have yarn especially designated for a cowl) in my future, but  I still don't know what pattern to use. Design one myself? After all, five of my six cowls are self-designed. Or find a pattern? We'll see. For now, it's baby hats baby hats baby hats baby hats baby hats ...