bear down

Whenever my mom comes to visit me I try to con her into something related to crafting. That and gardening are two of the things I miss doing with her the most. One time it was helping me finish her birthday quilt, and I'm pretty sure that same trip she and I spent hours in a park one afternoon knitting/crocheting where I made a lot of progress on a lace shawl. Last trip, just before the holidays last year, we went to Fengari in Half Moon Bay so she could help me spend a gift certificate. She may or may not have also left with some yarn :). 

The lovely navy yarn in this project was one of my purchases that day. Also this was the trip where we saw the finished object that inspired the project itself, a huge poofy infinity cowl. I really appreciate when yarn shops have samples made up, mainly to see how the yarns feel in finished fabric, but more than once I've seen a project and decided I needed to make one just like it. This cowl was floating atop the piles of Malabrigo yarn in a really great pea green and fuschia color combo. I knew I wanted one when I saw it because a) stripes b) bulky yarn c) color combo fun and d) so soft.

Of course once I decided I wanted to make it along comes the dilemma of what colors to use. I hemmed and hawed and ended up taking just the navy home. I know. I passed up the opportunity to buy TWO colors, and there are so many pretty colors of Malabrigo. But in the continued sprit of trying to use my stash yarn I knew I had an orange that would work out really well already hanging out at home that, besides being the complementary color to navy (color wheel theory, people), would make me the perfect accessory in which to root for the Chicago Bears. Let's not discuss last season - I'm a sports optimist. After all, I've rooted for the Cubs all my life and they had just won big!

The pattern is striped not only in color but also in weight. The bulky yarn is paired with a much lighter weight yarn that makes for a really interesting texture in the finished fabric. There's nothing fancy about the construction, just a big long rectangle of knitting grafted together to form a cowl. The edges are just plain knit stitch and so roll under as you'd expect. I won't be blocking it at all, but this was another one of those projects in the box with my ball winder -- it took me some time to muster up the will for grafting, but in the end easy peasy. Looking forward to some cozy times with this one this winter.

Bear Down cowl
Pattern: Polar Opposites (my Ravelry Page)
Yarn: Malabrigo Mecha in 'persia' and Madelinetosh Merino Light in 'terra'
Needle: US 11