A manly type cowl.

The past couple of months I’ve been weaving cowls. I don’t know why, except I wanted one myself, and jaggerspun had sent out a little sample packet of their new colors for Zephyr yarn and I just kept looking at it thinking that was a lovely combination of colors and I should do something with it…so, of course, I ordered all five new colors, a pound each, which was 25,000 yards of yarn, which totally obligated me to actually do something with it. So I made a set of cowls.

In case you weren’t aware, cowls are a perfect project to test out yarn combinations. I figured out a good stripe combination on iweave it, warped my loom for 16 inches at 24 epi.and put on a six yard warp. That gives 5 cowls at 36 inches in length, and one yard for waste.

I use my sewing machine to baste each end of the five feet of weaving and give it a nice warm water soak with Euclean, soak, or shampoo, in the laundry tub, slosh it around just a bit, squeeze the excess water out, roll it in a bath sheet and then step on it to really get the water out. Then I hang it to dry, giving it a quick press in the morning.

Anyway…I then had this lovely, pink!, warp on Clara, my 8 harness macomber loom. And fortuitously, I had a box of lovely coordinating hand spun silk from my friend Gabe.

She and I have the best system…I buy small amounts of hand dyed silk fiber…usually from Barb lxxxxx, who is a Woodland Weaver Guild Member, and I gift them to Gabriela…who in turn spins them…so much more finely than I’m capable or patient enough to try to spin. Sometimes she plys them on themselves, sometimes she plys them with sewing thread…and she often gifts them back to me…beautiful, delicate, one ounce skeins of luscious hand spun silk! So I’ve been saving these little skeins of silk thinking a project will come up perfect for them…and these cowls were it!

Zephyr warp, hand spun silk weft! 5 beautiful winter cowls!

I have been wearing one of the pink cowls nonstop..I don’t usually wear pink but it goes with everything

Then January came….and Norbert and I got Covid…ugh…mine lasted three days…no big deal…Norbert’s, however, has lasted the entire month but he is much better now…and in the middle of the Covid mess, I broke my toe…so I have had lots of opportunity to sit in my favorite chair with my foot up …. Knitting…

These are three of my five “covid Hats”

And then Jacob asked me, since I was wearing my pink cowl inside the house, because it was warm…and goes with everything…did I mention that?..Jacob asked if I could make him “a manly type of cowl”… so I knit him this Gaiter…and it’s my favorite shade of orange! I think it could be a smidge tighter, but for Jacob it’s perfect.

Next week I should have photos of the two huck lace scarves I just finished and a set of towels!