Great Cowl KAL

A few days ago I happened to stumble upon a post on the Cowl forum on Ravelry about Liz Abinante's Great Cowl KAL. I had knit Liz's Traveling Woman Shawl a few months ago, and was intrigued about the idea of a KAL. And I like cowls :)

The basic idea is the first pattern is available for free, and anyone who finishes by 2/8/12 gets another cowl pattern for free. If you don't finish in time, you can purchase the next pattern. She is planning 5 patterns in 50 days! If you want to check out the previews of the patterns and the rest of the details, look here.

I was a little worried about starting late - would I really be able to finish in time? But it seemed like a fun idea, and people on ravelry were starting to post finished projects. So I decided to go for it!

I was having trouble finding any sport weight in the stash (apparently it's the one weight of yarn I rarely ever buy) and the first yarn I swatched was too loose of a gauge. I probably could have spent more time digging in the stash for something that would work, and Friday was a rather stressful day at work, so I found myself wandering down to Urban Fiber Arts to look at sport weight yarns... Cindy had just enough sport weight yarn to give me a few options without being overwhelming. I settled on a skein of Alexandra's Crafts La Grande yarn - superwash merino handdyed in Silverton, OR. The color is NW Woods - perfect for February in Portland, don't you think?

(The color is a little washed out, but you get the idea.)

Cast on Friday night. Ran into a few problems on Saturday starting the brioche pattern, but looked through the Travelling Woman group on Ravelry for suggestions. Also got a little confused by the button hole instructions, but after looking at pictures of finished cowls it finally clicked in my brain. Today the brioche pattern went much more smoothly (maybe sleep helped? ;)

Now to find some buttons and pick out some stash yarn for the next cowl!