At last!

I have a finished thing!

But first I just want to say a huge thank you for the offers of help in response to my last post. We have had some very kind offers of help across the web and Jen is so grateful. She really didn't imagine that virtual strangers friends would help so greatly.I haven't posted in over a week as I wanted to keep that message up as long as possible but we have had so many lovely offers that i think I can safely allow to glide down the page. I will keep you updated with how things go :)

So back to the finished thing.

It started off like this many weeks ago:

The one on the left! ArwenMakes hand dyed sock

And then it became this:

The one at the top.

Two different sized needles started it growing:

The increase section moving along nicely

And then several weeks of a row here and there turned it into this:

Just one more icord edging to go

Before finally, last night, it became this:

Sallah cowl by Bristol Ivy

The whole thing is knit by using one 3.75mm needle and one 6mm needle alternating the rows. It is a lovely twisted rib pattern knit on a bias so there is an increase and decrease on every other row. The twisted knit is created by knitting into the back of every knit stitch so needs a fair amount of looking and feeling to make sure the stitch is taken up properly. The yarn itself is wonderful to work with. A splitty yarn would have had me tearing at my hair but this yarn is so smooth and quite soft. The twist is gentle so it runs through the fingers nicely and the colour....well, what can I say? The colour is amazing. A deep pinky red with lighter pinky orange tones running through, and a lovely silver sparkle throughout. You have to see it to appreciate what a great job Sarah has made of dyeing it. I am trying so hard to stay away from her Etsy store and splurging on gorgeous yarn that I really can't afford right now...or even have time to use!! In fact the only issue I have with the whole cowl is that it is not as drapey as the pattern shots imply, knit to gauge it is quite a snug fit with only a little drape, far less than it seems on the pattern page. Also it states after shaping to knit the main body until the left side measures 17 inches. Well my left side was almost that before I even started the main body! I did think of keeping on knitting until the piece seemed a reasonable length before starting the decreases but wonderful Ravelry came up with a Sallah cowl KAL group where it was suggested that working 64 rows (16 pattern repeats) made more sense as that would give a total of 156 rows, the same number as the amount of stitches to be picked up for the icord edging. This worked out just perfectly. The icord edging was a doddle to work and really sets off the finish on the cowl, it's definitely one I would use again.

Thanks Owen, for doing what your Dad didn't ;)

So that's another one for the gifting box then, time to knit up a couple of cardi's for the soon to be here baby bump, and some bits and bobs for Jen's stall. Oh and another Sallah cowl for the lovely man only in a darker shade and far less sparkle ;) Yep, he tried it on and loved it.He wouldn't model though so you'll just have to imagine a 40+ year old guy gruffly stating how great that would be for on the motorbike, whilst wearing a cherry red sparkly cowl......:) Apparently it's a nice snug fit so it will pull nicely up over his lips under the helmet.

I'll try to make it back soon, so taaraa for now.

-x-

PS - did I tell you I have a new addiction? Twitter and Instagram - who'd of thunk it?

I'm mamabex9 on Instagram and Bexmama on Twitter so please come and say hi. Because I want a real reason to be hanging around there, not just to randomly browse strangers posts and pics......

-x-