My boyfriend has two daughters. The younger recently celebrated a birthday, and I wanted to make something for her. I bought her a book because I’m a librarian, and because I love Kate Beaton. But a couple months back, I was working on a sweater (still in progress – it’ll be a while before I can share a final version), and E came over to me and asked to see what I was working on. The sweater itself is lavender, but the directions included using some waste yarn for a temporary cast-on. The yarn in question was a pink, orange, yellow and white, and E told me that it was the prettiest part of the sweater. I laughed to myself (and later to my boyfriend, A) because this was just garbage yarn that I had way too much of from a project a while back, and it wasn’t even going to be a part of the final sweater anyways.
But it gave me an idea – I could make something for E, and if I made it out of that orangesicle she would probably like it. A warned me not to make something precious – small children are wont to leave clothing items everywhere – so I figured it should be something quick and easy. That didn’t mean I was going to make something boring or ugly, just something small, so if it was lost, that it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
The very first project that I ever knit was a wonky blue scarf for my high school friend S, and he recently told me that he still has it and occasionally wears it, so I figured a scarf would be good for little E too. And even smaller and quicker than a normal scarf is a cowl, so I went in search of a cool pattern. The first place I usually check for patterns is Knitty, and so I searched their archives for a scarf/cowl that was no more than “tangy”, their term for moderately engaging, but not-too-difficult. I turned up the Sallah cowl, which was labeled as “mellow” – the easiest level – and found it to be easy knitting, but still pretty.
I finished the cowl completely on Saturday, and took some quick pictures, including the one above – just to make sure it made sense as a neck-warming device. I modified the pattern slightly – it’s less wide than was called for in the instructions, because I didn’t want it to bunch up too much on a little girl neck. It’s a little wonky – there were a couple places where I forgot to increase or decrease, and so had to double up later on, which left a slight divot or bulge in offending area, and I somehow flipped the “front” and “back” at some point, but none of those matter. They’re not the kind of mistakes that non-knitters can see, and even the knitters would have to take a close look at the scarf before seeing where the mistakes are. Plus, this is a gift for a child – who are not known for their attention to detail.
I gave the scarf to E on Sunday when she and her older sister came over. She was a little confused at first (her eyes said “what do I do with this short tube?”), but when I explained it and reminded her which yarn it was, she liked it a lot, and promised to keep it at our place. This is good for a couple reasons – I’ll get to see when she wears it, and it won’t just get tossed on a pile at her other house with all her other winter clothes. Win, win.
Project details: Sallah cowl, knit with Bernat Baby Sport in “Sweet’n Sunny”.
Nice work, dear!
Thanks. I’m very pleased with it – easy and cute!