Another Way to Keep Warm

I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered.

But I was not pleased to read the description in a catalgoue:

no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.

-Eleanor Roosevelt

It was a whole 47 degrees this morning when I got in my car to head to work. For San Diego, that's definite sweater weather. Maybe even mittens, although for the whole 10 minute drive I tend to just put the seat heaters on and "tough it out." And actually, I tend to wear hooded sweatshirts more than sweaters when I'm dragging myself off in the pre-dawn hours. A morning person, I am not. Just ask my mom.

Speaking of my mom, she's a grand appreciator of handknits. You may recall that when I saw her earlier this month, she tried to steal my brand-new cowl. Since there's no good reason we can't both have one, I made another one:

(The color is truer in the original post - darker than here.) That's the Luxe Neckwarmer from Knit 2 Together, for those of you too lazy to follow the link.

Those cowls were fun. And if not entirely stashbusters, due to not requiring super-much yarn, they did provide a potential outlet for heretofore unusused lovely skeins.

Hence, the next cowl:

Nova's Birthday Cowl
Pattern: Birthday Cowl, free pattern here
Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair
Needles: US 8
Notes: Great easy pattern. Very similar to the one in the Odessa hat.
Best Thing About This Project: The way the yarn blooms.

The only challenge with this cowl is going to be finding someone who can wear this color so close to their face. It's a gorgeous coral which I used to great effect as an accent here and here, but alone it's quite bright.

So then I took a look at the rest of my Mountain Mohair leftovers (because I'm learning that leftovers - often in massive quantities are what happens when you do stranded knitting), conveniently sitting in a basket waiting their turn. And another cowl was born.

Almost Lichen Cowl
Pattern: inspired by the Lichen Cowl from Lollyknits
Yarn: more Mountain Mohair leftovers
Needles: US 8
Notes: I modified this to make it narrower - the original can be wrapped twice around the neck, but I wanted a more straightforward cowl. I think I used 90 sts or thereabouts.
Best Thing About This Project: Soft fuzzy yarn, delightful colors - and "my" colors, and the perfect thing to keep a little chill at bay, indoors or out. Because any day you can wear handknits is better than any day you can't.