Aran cowl ...

I've designed this wonderful Aran cowl for my Costa Brava Knitting workshops in February. I do hope my guests enjoy making it up and adapting the pattern to create their own unique holiday knits. What do you think?

It's a relatively straightforward project as both the cables and the central tree/ rope panel repeat over 8 rows, so they stay in step with one another as the project progresses, making it easy to keep track of where you are.

I used just under 2, 100g hanks of the wool (just under 400 m/ 440 yards), and it knit up on 4mm/ UK size 8/ US size 6 needles in the pattern at 47 stitches x 30 rows for a 10cm x 10 cm tension square. My scarf, before I folded it up and stitched it to make a cowl, measured 16 cm/6.5"  wide x 80 cm/ 31.5" long.

Just read on for the pattern:

Grrrr ... not going my way ...

Don't you just hate it when everything gets knotted and you spend more time unravelling the wool than you do knitting the jumper? :-(( Normally I can count on Emi, Mr B ... the Wonder Dog ... anyone to hold their hands/ paws up obligingly so that I can unravel and wind my skeins into nice, neat balls of yarn ready to go. Today, however, things did not go according to plan ... .

Note to self: buy one of those umbrella-twister/ ball-winder combos to avoid nervous melt-down!!!

New Year, New Wool ...

It's turned a bit chillier here on the Costa Brava. The blue skies have gone, and in their place are leaden clouds and unkind sea breezes. Luckily we've not had to venture out very far, and have been cosily tucked up in front of the fire watching movies.

I've been road-testing a beautiful collection of hand-dyed merino wool. It starts out white, and they add dashes of dye until it's got a wonderful Jackson Pollock thing going on with depths and layers of colour. At first I thought that the multiple colour-way might be a distraction from the Aran stitch-work, but, now that I see it knit up, I like the look. What do you think?

Multi-coloured wool has the advantage of opening up all sorts of colour-matching/ clashing possibilities that a straight one-colour blend just doesn't touch.

Happy New Year 2016 ...

May your pockets be heavy, and your heart be light.

May good luck pursue you each morning and night.

Traditional Irish blessing for the New Year

Knapweed ... or floral super-hero?

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them."

said Winnie-the Pooh 

I'm completely in agreement with Pooh - especially at this time of the year when there's not a whole lot of colour around anywhere for us to enjoy. I saw this rather glorious cluster of knapweed this morning growing quietly beside the path I was following up the cliff. It called out loudly for me to stop and admire it ...