Introducing my new Cat Bordhi Workshop Pattern Series:
Each pattern will teach a collection of “knitter’s jewels.” These are techniques you will treasure and use again and again.

THE SKILLS YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS PATTERN ARE:
• The stretchy Crocodile Cast-On: page 2
• Determine tail length needed: page 2
• Digest and internalize a chart: page 3
• Perfect your SSK lines with Hungry Stitch: page 5
• Work pairs of crossed stitches: page 5
• Draw stitches and read your knitting: page 5
• Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off: page 8
• A smooth chain closure to a circular edge: page 8

The pattern includes 6 live video tutorial links so that I can “sit beside you” and demonstrate a technique just as I would in a real workshop.

About the cowl design: Last year I challenged myself to design a project incorporating seven of my favorite techniques using just 1 skein of Shibui Merino Alpaca held together with a strand of Shibui Silk Cloud. I taught the workshop to thirty yarn shop owners at the TNNA convention (The National Needlework Association) in Phoenix in January 2012. To my delight, not a single knitter in the room knew more than a few of the techniques, and many finished the cowl that day or the next. This encourages me to think that you too will be as happy as they were to learn these tricks and will also enjoy wearing the cowl. With these skills in your repertoire, you will be a more agile and confident knitter, make fewer mistakes, and will love the end results. By the way, it turns out there are eight skills included … I couldn’t stop.

Yarn: Shibui Merino Alpaca (50% baby alpaca, 50% merino wool, 131 yds / 100 g) 1 skein, and Shibui Silk Cloud (60% kid mohair, 40% silk, 330 yds / 25 g), 1/2 skein (the two yarns are held together