Love that this cowl is made from three different animals and fiber from three different countries: merino from Uruguay, silk from Japan, Alpaca from Kansas!!

The alpaca is from “Karmel” at the Alpacas For Autism Ranch in Kansas.

9/13/12 - CO 88 turned out to be tighter than I would have liked so added 1 stitch per rib about 6 inches into the 4x4 ribbing, which worked great. After I was finished I found the top portion a little snugger than I wanted, and since I had a lot of yarn left over increased about 10 stitches and knit another 4”-5” inches. Used about 350 yards total.

8/11/12 - knit about 3 inches and worried about having enough yarn and the final garment not having enough drape. Moving up to a #9, not worried about frogging - I think it will be an advantage to have the portion framing my face snugger and the portion over the skull looser.

8/10/12 Let’s see how complicated we can make this, shall we? For starters I’m not buying the pattern because everything but measurements are obvious from the photo. Stockinette and 4x4 rib, got it. The complicated part is I only have 300 yds of the Manos and the pattern calls for 450 … time for some stash busting. Came across some lovely natural handspun alpaca - great match. But I only have 110 yards so I’ll have to do 3 rows manos/1 row alpaca. I also have this lovely Habu lace-weight silk. Hum, it really helps the alpaca blend with the Manos but it also makes it less soft … Thinking I’ll run it everyother. And since the manos pools something terrible I’ll have to switch skeins every other row. So basically I’ll be working with four skeins of yarn simultaneously … why keep it simple:)