Hasukai Cowl Progress and Regress

I mentioned in my post about Iceland that I cast on a project for the trip. The long and drapey Hasukai Cowl that can be worn long like a scarf or slipped over your head like a cowl caught my eye a while ago. I thought the long garter stitch project would be perfect for a trip.

I actually cast it on while I was still at home since it's good to get a start before you leave to minimize the chance of getting stuck without your tools! I was explaining the project to my mom who was beside me and trying to talk her through how I was going to do it without purling. She admitted she didn't really follow the specifics but she got that I would be working around and around. She asked somewhat incredulously, "Don't you feel like you're just going to be working on that forever, just going around and around without it ever ending?" And I said, "You bet...but you make that sound like a bad thing!" We had a good laugh.

The picture on the right shows some progress I'm making at the first airport. I didn't do much more during the flights since we were flying overnight and I did my best to get a little sleep. (We were in the back row where the seats don't incline at all; it wasn't a great trip for sleeping.)

I took it with me every day but I didn't pull it out to work on until at least half way through the trip -- I was too busy with the camera and looking around. The first half of the trip was also busier than the second. What follows are a bunch of "knitting while..." pics.

On the bus at Dettifoss:

By the time I got home, I was about half way done the cowl. This is the Saturday after we got back:

 I got to enjoy a backyard concert of bluegrass music and the knitting came with:

 Watching my first football game of the season:

Perhaps motivated by all the stripes on the uniforms, I decided to add white stripes to one end:

There's always been something I didn't like about garter stitch ruffle, so I tried a different construction on the second ruffle. Then I did a little poll on IG.

Ruffle 1

or Ruffle 2.

1

or 2.

Ruffle 1

or Ruffle 2.
(Can you tell I used to give eye exams?)

What do you think? I tried to make it clear that it was not about the white stripe or not, but I don't think that was clear to everyone.

In the end I decided I preferred the fullness of the first ruffle. The second one was done with alternating stocking and reverse stocking stitch (similar to the ruffles on the dress I made for my niece), but with this gauge, it was too loose and there just wasn't enough fabric there to make it ruffle-ly.

So I ripped out the second ruffle. (Even though I blocked the cowl, I left all the ends loose for just this reason.) I also decided to take out the white stripes. They are very striking, but they're not what I wanted for this project. I added them on the spur of the moment and forgot that I was planning to overdye the project after it's knitted. The dye wasn't going to work on the white stripe, so out it goes!

I'm about half done the ruffle the second time and hope to finish soon. I have some ideas about how I want to dye it, but it will be an adventure.