Wanted: warm snuggly garter stitch cowl in handspun with an interesting pattern and bright, happy yarn. Check.

I am really enjoying Louise Zass-Bangham’s patterns. This was my second in handspun, after Another Way.

For this one, however, I was glad to be captive on a 4 hour bus ride so that I would be forced to keep going with the never-ending cast on and first few rows. I liked the provisional cast on (using cable of circular needle instead of waste yarn) for the first 44 stictches. Unfortunately, I used a regular thumb cast on (backward loop) for the long edge, 264 stitches. They were a pain to make and a huge pain to knit off. In the future, I would be much happier if I tried the Double-Twist Loop Cast On from Bestor’s “Cast On, Bind Off” book.

I did random stripes of the sparkly pink Hobbledehoy yarn because I thought I would run out of Tiny Flicker. However, I have Tiny Flicker leftover and the cowl only weighs 4.63 oz. It is maybe a DK/Light worsted and I knit a double loop mobius cowl in the standard size, approximately 8 inches wide and 48 inches in circumference.

I chose the Suspended Bind Off from Bestor’s book. I liked it because it seemed to match the stretchiness of the cast on edge, and didn’t flare.