Day 1 - 14-09-2016

My inspiration for this cowl was the path that I walk down with my dog. The colours are inspired by the trees and bushes in early autumn in South Wales. At this time of year they turn a different shade of green before turning brown and dropping off. I’m thinking a rainy autumn day. Watch this space for more info!

15-09-2016

Swatching went well. I like the effect. Now to think about how to pattern the middle…

16-09-2016

I’ve decided that I’m going to do the central panel in bamboo stitch.

Day 2 - 16-09-2016

Today, we’re thinking about stitch patterns. I knew what I wanted for my border pattern but I needed inspiration for the middle band. I’ve decided on the bamboo stitch which I found on purledavenue.com which is a free online resource for knitters. I’m swatching as we speak with my bargain yarn. I’ll let you know how it turns out!

17-09-2016

I couldn’t wait so I cast on my cowl!! As if I don’t have enough works!

17-09-2016

Frogged it because I decided I didn’t like the effect if was making. It looked messy. This is what pattern designing and playing around with yarn is all about…

Day 3 - 18-09-2016

Today is swatching. I’ve done two swatches because I can’t decide what yarn to actually use. I like the grey of my bargain yarn but I also like the green of the hayfield yarn. Maybe I could do two and let you all decide…

I used 8mm needles for the green swatch. The swatch is 29cms wide and 12cms high. It’s 40 stitches wide and 22 rows high. Tension is 7 rows by 6 stitches per 4cm square.

For the gray swatch I used 2.75mm needles and it’s 14cm wide and 6cm high therefore tension is 11 stitches by 15 rows per 4cm square.

19-09-2016

I charted my design a few days ago because I knew what stitch pattern I wanted. When I charted it, I made a few mistakes which made it difficult to read my written chart so I charted it in Stitch Fiddle. The process was really easy and with the free account I could export my chart and legend as a png file which doesn’t have the same quality as a jpg but it does the job. I then opened it on my husband’s Acer Switch in Microsoft’s own picture editor and I rotated it so that it would fit on an a4 sheet of paper at the end of my pattern. I then opened Microsoft Word and started a new document and inserted the png file as a picture and it was perfect. I’d definitely recommend Stitch Fiddle and you get unlimited public charts with the free account too which is helpful. The only thing is that when you export the file, there’s a watermark on the bottom saying it’s come from Stitch Fiddle but is that really a big problem?

Day 4 - 20-09-2016

So today, I’m doing maths. Maths isn’t hard for me but because of my normal Jeronimo attitude to designing and diving straight in, this is a first for me. Unless you count the calculations I’ve done for my Siôl Fagu Gyda Galon… Anyhoo, I worked out my tension on day 3. To recap, the cowl is 29cms wide and one pattern repeat is 12cms high. So for a 8cm tension square, you need to cast on 12 stitches and knit for 14 rows. I want my cowl to be quite small so it stays close to your neck so I decided that I want it to be about 70cms long. I divided 70 by 12 and got 5.833 so I decided to do 6 pattern repeats which would make it 72cms long. That means that I have to knit 120 rows so hopefully it’ll knit up fairly quickly. I’ll be looking for test knitters when I’ve finished but keep an eye on my blog for a chance to be one!

20-09-2016

Check out the blog to find out how you can get the chance to be a test knitter!

https://giftedgoodiesblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/20/autumn...

22-09-2016

Day 5 - Pattern Writing

I’ve written my pattern but I need to tweak it to make it easier to read.

I also need to finish my sample knit but Grr! I’ve made a mistake and had to pull the last pattern repeat because I’ve done it wrong!

22-09-2016

I’ve decided to make the cowl 60cm long because I’m coming to the end of one ball at the end of 5 pattern repeats and I didn’t see any point in starting a new ball for half a pattern repeat. So this pattern only takes one ball of yarn.