Thursday, May 5, 2011

Another Quince Project

Yesterday my Cat Cay Cowl pattern was published on the Quince and Company website. I designed this cowl while anticipating our spring break vacation to Cat Cay in the Bahamas. Consequently, the stitch patterns include beach references: cables (ropes), embossed diamonds (flags), and small pebbly patterns (ripples on the water), all worked in a beautiful ocean blue shade of Tern (75% merino, 25% silk).




This cowl is knitted in the round but Murphy's Law ensured that the "seam" was front and center for the photograph. Oh well.

I used the decorative Channel Island cast-on to give a pretty edge to the cowl, but the instructions you'll download from Quince and Company were simplified to specify the more common long-tail cast-on. Those of you with eagle eyes will certainly notice the difference. Fortunately, there are several very good demonstrations of the Channel Island cast-on on YouTube. I encourage you to try it.

So that the bind-off edge would match the cast-on, I used the Channel Island bind-off, a technique explained and illustrated in Vintage Modern Knits by Courtney Kelley and Kate Gagnon Osborn (Interweave, 2011). Believe me, instructions for this bind-off alone are worth the cover price of the book!

2 comments:

mrsbooklove said...

Ann, You make such beautiful things! Love your new cowl design! It may sound corny, but seeing it actually brought happy tears to my eyes! I guess I just love knitting that much and I appreciate the work you do. :D Thank you!

Virginia G said...

I wouldn't have noticed the seam if you hadn't pointed it out. :)

And yeah, Vintage Modern Knits is a great book!