Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Striped Anemone Cowl

Striped Anemone Cowl

Since I've been on maternity leave (the baby is now over two months old! and so cute!), I've been trying to use up all of my leftover yarn instead of going out and buying more. So, although my soul is suffering serious separation anxiety after going so long without a trip to the yarn store, my odds-and-ends pile is getting slimmer and slimmer. And this particular cowl is knit with the leftovers from the Long-Slip Striped Table Runner. Luckily, I'm still not tired of knitting with this yarn, although at this point I have very little left.

Detail. It really does look like little sea anemones, no?
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Jeannee (51% Cotton, 49% Acrylic; 111 yards [102 meters]/50 grams); #0023 (Lavender) - one skein (color A), #0006 (Sage) - one skein (color B), #0022 (Gray) - one skein (color C), & #0033 (Teal) - one skein (color D)

Needles: 16" or 20" circular needle in size 8

Notions: Tapestry needle

Gauge: 18 stitches = 4 inches

Using your color A yarn, cast on 100 stitches, place marker, and join in round. Purl one row around. And now, it's time to begin our main pattern, which is a four-color, in-the-round variation on Anemone Stitch from page 131 of Barbara G. Walker's A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. As you'll notice when you're knitting it, your back seam will be very loose. The best way to combat this is by clipping the tail of each color yarn after you work it and knotting the tails instead of trying to carry them up the piece. Oh, and the pattern won't start looking good until you knit a few rows, so don't get scared if it looks weird at first! Anyway, let's proceed like so:

Row 1: using color B, * k1, (yo) twice; rep until *

Row 2: using color B, * slip 4 knit stitches briefly in order to drop the yo's after each of them, replace 4 elongated stitches back on left-hand needle and (k4tog, p4tog) twice into these same 4 stitches *

Row 3: using color C, k2, * k1, (yo) twice * until you have two stitches left in round; end k2

Row 4: using color C, k2, * slip 4 knit stitches briefly in order to drop the yo's after each of them, replace 4 elongated stitches back on left-hand needle and (k4tog, p4tog) twice into these same 4 stitches * until you have two stitches left in round; end k2

Rows 5 & 6: using color D, repeat Rows 1 & 2

Rows 7 & 8: using color A, repeat Rows 3 & 4

Knit rows 1 - 8 twice and then knit rows 1 - 6 once more. Using color A, knit one row around and then purl one row around. Bind off loosely and tuck in ends. Block, if desired (I didn't).





14 comments:

  1. Good photo! I think the cowl is lovely.

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  2. Can't get printer friendly/ pdf button to work. Karen Jackson

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    1. Hi Karen! Sorry for the delayed response - I've been on a weekend trip with the fam! Anyway, everything seems to be working with the printfriendly button on my end, which makes me wonder if it's an issue with your browser. I poked around a bit on the printfriendly support page, and it seems like there may be an issue with it if you're using IE 10 (http://support.printfriendly.com/customer/portal/articles/1162257-internet-explorer-10-fix). Otherwise, I'm not sure what to tell you. Sorry I couldn't be more help!

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Hi

    Love the cowl. But honestly did not understand row 2 and row 4. Am very new to knitting but love taking challenges and learning more in the process. Can u pls help? Hope the baby is doing fine. Thanks

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    1. Hello there! I found a YouTube tutorial for this stitch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP-lcvMNDr0 Of course I've adapted it for the round, so it's slightly different, but not very. If you fast forward to 1:15 you can find where he begins Row 2 - hopefully that will help you sort things out. Please let me know if you have any more questions! And, for the record, I feel the same way you do - I love a challenge! Finally, the baby is feeling better, thank you! :)

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    2. Thank you soooo much. I'm going to try this today... Yayyyyy!!!
      Lots of love to the baby.. TC...
      U simply rock!!!

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    3. Thank you! Let me know if you have any more problems! :)

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    4. Thank you soooo much. I'm going to try this today... Yayyyyy!!!
      Lots of love to the baby.. TC...
      U simply rock!!!

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  5. hi please can you share how to knit this on straight needles.

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    1. Sure, it's like so:

      Cast on 100 stitches in color A. Knit one row. Then the stitch pattern is as follows:

      Row 1 (wrong side): using color B, purl, wrapping yarn twice for each stitch

      Row 2: using color B, * slip 4 knit stitches briefly in order to drop the yo's after each of them, replace 4 elongated stitches back on left-hand needle and (k4tog, p4tog) twice into these same 4 stitches *

      Row 3: using color C, p2, purl across wrapping yarn twice for each stitch, to the last 2 stitches, end p2

      Row 4: using color C, k2, * slip 4 knit stitches briefly in order to drop the yo's after each of them, replace 4 elongated stitches back on left-hand needle and (k4tog, p4tog) twice into these same 4 stitches; rep from * until 2 stitches left, end k2

      Rows 5 & 6: repeat rows 1 & 2 using color D

      Rows 7 & 8: repeat rows 3 & 4 using color A

      Knit rows 1 - 8 twice and then knit rows 1 - 6 once more. Using color A, purl two rows. Bind off loosely, seam, and tuck in ends.

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  6. Hi Gretchen
    I am kind of confused with this pattern. When you say slip 4 with yo there are 4 extra stiches and then we do k4 together and p4tog will that not be reducing 4 stitches then
    Also how many stitches would you need for 8 ply yarn on size 7 needles??

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    1. Hi, you drop all of your extra yarn overs in rows 2 & 4, which brings you back to four stitches. Then, when you (k4tog, p4tog) twice into those four, you will have four stitches again, retaining your stitch count.

      As far as your second question is concerned, 8 ply doesn't give me much information about gauge, but I'm guessing that it is close to the pattern gauge if size US 7 needles are recommended. In that case, you could just use your size US 8 needles instead and still cast on 100. If you'd rather, of course you can swatch and calculate from there! You can cast on any multiple of 4 with this stitch pattern.

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