Dear Kay,
At this point I’ve got little piles of knitting around the house, no rhyme or reason to any of it, like a crazy person. Looks like the goal is to have knitting located so as to make knitting possible while opening the front door, cleaning the cat box, and recycling cardboard.
This, for example.
This has been in the teevee viewing area for a while. Pattern missing in action. I don’t know when I started it. I do know it uses some very lush Camellia Fiber Co. merino that you and I bought at Craft South in June, so it can’t be older than this summer. I recall watching Homeland and chugging away with no destination in mind at all except round after round of knit purl, purl knit, then a sweet row where you blast knit stitches all the way around.
It’s actually a perfect stitch pattern—you get two rows with a little action in them, and just when you feel the tedium coming on, you get a free round of GOFORIT. It’s moss stitch with a breather.
But I knew there was more to this thing. It’s a cowl where the pattern shifts dramatically to something else, but I’d forgotten the designer and the pattern name, which really put me in a hole.
The good news is that I found the pattern the other day, in a pile of bills I paid a couple of months ago. I may have inadvertently sent the credit card company a page of this pattern, seeing as how page 3 was missing.
HELLO Essentia Cowl! By Galzanne Knits! Back in the game!
By complete stupid luck, I hadn’t overshot the moment when the pattern changes. It shifts to a simple yarnover lace.
Looking at it now, I should point out that I ditched the colorwork. Mine is all cream, all the time. And I’m not sure about that lace. Does the lace improve this cowl beyond its current incarnation? It looks a little . . . extraneous? Fancy? Maybe I should keep blasting through with the moss stitch. Simplicity or complexity?
Christmas Cheer
As we lurch toward Christmas, I send warm greetings to everyone. Holidays mean different things to different people. Christmas means nothing to some, and everything to others. I remember a house I visited years ago where the Christmas breakfast for thirty was set up four days in advance, with a castle’s worth of flatware and crystal. And I remember a friend who invites home pretty much random people from a Christmas Eve church service, for a supper of soup and cornbread. It does tend to get tender, Christmas, once you have been on this earth for a while. It gets simpler and more complicated all at once. May we all revel in the simple part, and hang in there for the complicated part. I, for one, am going to eat an entire chocolate orange on Christmas Day and watch the boys open their presents, once again.
Merry Christmas to all! I’ll be back on Monday, the 28th.
Love,
Ann
Merry Christmas, my friend. Miss seeing you!
Just to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and to tell you, Ann and Kay, how happy I am to have found you. I even dug back and found your Outside the Lines knitting book that I bought when it came out. I read you early each morning when I get up and make my coffee, then turn to my writing. I’m completing my first novel, and in between I knit or read, though I take time for exercise, too. Right now I have sitting out a ball of blue hand-dyed North Ronaldsy yarn that I bought from Elizabeth Lovick when I traveled to Orkney in 2009. I was inspired by your piece on ganseys to order the Wright and the Reingel books and want to make from the blue yarn swatches of the different patterns for my in-between pick-up knitting. Ann, your report today that you leave knitting projects all over the place made me feel sane. Thank you both for your good sense and humor.
I like the monochromatic version, too, Ann. It’s very pretty.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
LoveDiane
Lovely pattern, glad you found it. I bet Kay will tell you to Konmari….
One of my fav cowl patterns is also a Galzanne Knits pattern, the Garland Cowl:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/garland-cowl
It knits up very fast, which is saying something for me! I love your cream yarn, Ann!
Merry Christmas! xo Tammy
Having just discovered your blog in the past month or so, it has been a true blessing to receive every day in my email, especially during the hectic and overwhelming holiday season. For some reason, reading (and dreaming) about knitting is soothing to me so it is my very favorite part of my day! I do love to do the actual knitting – just not when I am super stressed and pushed for time. So thank you for inspiring me and helping me decide which projects to ask Santa to bring yarn for so I can jump into them as soon as I can!!
Simplicity, definately simplicity.
Gosh, that’s a nice pattern! Personally, I’d do the yarnover thing. I don’t even think of it as lace; it looks like some kind of subtle magic ribbing to me.
Enjoy your Christmas, Ann and family and friends 🙂
BTW, what is a chocolate orange? It sounds yummy.
Sorry, this question was supposed to be at the end !
No worries! A chocolate orange is this type of thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry%27s_Chocolate_Orange
Hope that link works! If not, a google will turn up a picture for you 🙂
It looks yummy! Thank you for the info! 🙂
Doesn’t the shift in pattern stitch allow the cowl to spread nicely over the shoulders? Maybe drastic increasing is happening in disguise. Good Tidings.
Perfectly stated, as always. The complicated simplicity of holidays.-with knitting providing the perfect metaphor. Thanks for your thoughtful, funny and lovely commentaries on life.
I think you should include the lace – complex and simple at the same time. I like your monochromatic version – helps hide the complexity, I guess!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you both, Ann and Kay, and to your families.
Merry Christmas to you too.
I agree that there should be knitting close at hand at all times – including a project or two in the car.
Do the lace!
Great looking cowl. I sit with the do-the-lace club.
I am alternately aggravated and excited that you mention chocolate oranges. Obviously, this is what our stockings need, and we have done in the past, but. I am so very done with shopping. I kind of never want to shop again. I actually got super simple with the stockings and the only foodstuffs will be roasted peanuts in shell as filler, and a lot of hersey kisses. My kids won’t eat candy canes, and I sure don’t need a dozen of them, and we have three bags of halos…do I need more oranges? Yes, I need chocolate oranges. Sigh.
I’m with them… the lace panel at the bottom adds that certain je ne sais quoi, and I think it would be especially effective in monochrome.
Indeed “it does get tender, Christmastime.” Perfect expression. I am achingly missing my children and grandchildren, trying to make it suffice that we will be seeing my 100 year old mother-in-law and my husband’s children and grandchildren. All of them are Perfectly Okay, but they aren’t MY children! So there is that tender ache…
NEXT YEAR FOR SURE!!!
Merry Christmas and all midwinter holidays of your choice, to you and your families and readers. The fun part will start soon.
Gorgeous cowl. Will be great either way.
Happy Chrismukah to you both and your families.
Merry Xmasto you and your guys! What a perfect description of the holiday season. Personally I’d stick with the broken moss stitch and call it just right .
xoxox
Merry Christmas, with love and best wishes for 2016!
Peace and joy to both of you! Thanks for blogging again.
I know what you and some of your commenters mean about the joy of being with one’s children.
I’d add the lace for draping over the shoulder purposes.
minm
I’m with Gale. Stick with the moss stitch.
You made me laugh with “The good news is that I found the pattern the other day, in a pile of bills I paid a couple of months ago. I may have inadvertently sent the credit card company a page of this pattern, seeing as how page 3 was missing.” And your last paragraph…so sweet, so true! Thank you. Merry Christmas to you and to Kay!
I will revel in the simple part, and just barrel through the more complicated. Yes, Christmas does get tender as we get older. Wishing you and yours the Merriest of Christmases. As for the chocolate orange, they are just the best.
Ann, the post is hysterical. You really are a very witty writer. Am enjoying the laughs at the end of the work day.
Merry Christmas to you can and Kay and thanks for coming back!
Happy Holidays!!! I look forward to your next post on my birthday, Dec. 28th. I love checking your blog each morning w/ my coffee. Thank you!
Thank you for the time and creative compilation of words you both put in to this blog. Each post is like a little gift.
Stick with the broken moss stitch. The flare-y thing at the bottom is too much for the elegance of the cream yarn.
And thank you for putting into words how I feel about this time of year. Happy holidays!
Chocolate oranges are a staple in our house at this time of year!! A very Merry Christmas to both you and Kay, and all your loved ones. And…..thank you both so much for bringing back the blog; it is a highlight of my day, with your wonderful humour and insightful comments on life, knitting, etc.
Thank you for your beautiful words (now, and through all the years of MDK). This year’s Christmas has been more complicated for me and mine than any other I can remember, and yet in certain ways also far simpler. I was dreading the complexity, and not expecting the simplicity. There’s something in there about grace, but I haven’t puzzled it out yet.
I vote for the lacy (mesh?) edging, on the grounds of shoulder drape, but I think either way will be perfectly lovely.
Warmest of holidays to you both, and best wishes for a bright new year!