Hasukai Cowl

Ready for another "finished project" post? I introduced this project in this post at the end of September. I finished it the next day.

Look at all that plush garter.
I'm not the biggest fan of garter stitch,
but sometimes....mmmh.
You're right--it does help that it's cashmere.

So why did I not write about it until six months later? Well, I had plans to dye the finished piece. I find this red a little flat and I was hoping to add some depth and variation with a dip in some dye. But I wasn't confident in how to do it and haven't (yet) felt adventurous enough to try. So I started wearing it like this and then it seemed a little after the fact to blog about it. But here we are.

If I ever dye it, I'll let you know. (I'll try not to wait six months.)

The scarf is a tube of garter stitch with increases on one side and matching decreases on the other so that the rows end up running diagonally. Then the ends are finished with a ruffle.

Each end is the same except that the long point on one side lines up with the short end on the other side.

The scarf can be worn as a basic scarf, just wrapped behind the neck:

or wrapped around the neck:

But the reason this pattern caught my eye is that it can be worn as a cowl too. To get there, you have to configure the scarf as follows:

Put your hand inside the scarf and hold the other edge.

Pull the one edge over the other, like you're
turning something inside out.

Line up the "inny" and "outy" points and
arranged the scarf so it is folded roughly in half.

Open up the center of the tube.

Stick your head through the hole.

Now you have a cozy cowl that pools around your neck and drapes over your shoulders:

No cold is sneaking between this cowl and your shirt's neckline.

Or you can pull all the bulk to the front if you don't want your shoulders covered:

If you want to be able to move your arms, this is also what you have to do if you're going to wear it under a coat:

But you can wear it outside the coat too:

I really love throwing this cowl on. (I don't really wear it as a scarf.) It was great to wear inside on the cold, cold days we had this winter when the woodstove was throwing out heat but couldn't stop the cold drafts that were suddenly noticeable. On the milder days we're having now, it's great to wear out of the house like a wrap or poncho.

If you want a simple project that is way more interesting than a long rectangle scarf, definitely give this a go.

Since the scarf is worked in the round in garter stitch, the pattern instructs you to knit one row and purl the next. I applied the same "no purl" method I used on my Honey Cowl to avoid all that purling, especially as it is easy to do so.

I used one end from the outside of the yarn cake and one from the inside for my two strands since I started this for a trip and wanted to be able to travel light(er). (This way I only needed to carry one ball of yarn instead of two.)

Project Stats
Started: 7 Aug '18
Finished: 30 Sep '18
Pattern: Hasukai Cowl by Hiroko Fukatsu (¥2 JPY, which is currently ~$1.85 US)
Materials: 135 grams cashmere raveled from a Patrick Clark sweater, held double ($2.50 for the whole sweater, 228 grams)
Ravelry project link: Hasuki Cowl for Iceland

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.

Starting and Restarting

I mentioned a new project that I said I was obsessed with--I've started a stole. I plan to give it to my church if it turns out nice enough. I asked someone there a while ago if they needed a new red one because I had this project turning in my mind. If they had said yes, I would have got right on it. But I never heard back. Then I decided I had to get this project out of my mind whether they wanted it or not! If not, I'll find something else to do with it.

So what is a stole? It's a little confusing as the word is more commonly used for a fur wrap worn about the shoulders. (Well, not that I see too many of those these days.) But this type of stole is basically a long scarf that is worn with its center at the back neck and each end hanging down over the front of the shoulders.

The only difference between what I'm knitting and a long scarf is the shaping given at the back so that it turns the corner while lying flat. That's the basic idea anyway.

I wanted to use my colour changing wool and I wanted to make the gradation mirror itself on the two sides. I did not want to start at one end, knit all the way around and have the colours just fall where they may. So where did that leave me?

I decided to start at the center back, knit a bias square and then knit the two long pieces off of two adjacent sides. (So it would be like two long pieces meeting at a 45^ angle.) Except I couldn't knit the two long parts separately--I would have to knit them at the same time by casting on a few extra stitches and steeking it down the middle when I was done. That way the colour changes would be the same on both sides. Brilliant right?

But what pattern to use? I was drawn to the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf which I had suggested to Amy as a Red Purl knit-along a while ago and it's been a big hit ever since:

It's constructed from triangles in a garter stitch and you can see that it really does interesting things with colour changing yarn. After knitting about a third of mine, I think the scarf is better on quicker colour changes than what I'm working with, but it will still be effective. I like the triangle construction because it's interesting and because of the shape's association with the theology of the trinity. (Or Trinity? Do you have to capitalize that?)

After making some headway on the two long sides pieces, I noticed that the beginning square was wider than my pieces were now. I mulled on that for a while and finally realized that I had let my math training down (again) and failed to realized that I needed to apply a basic geometric principal. The way I had put it together I had assumed that the side of the triangle was the same length as the base. But it's not. So although my beginning square was the right dimension, my long scarf parts were too skinny.

For a while I figured it wasn't "that bad." Then I figured I could "block it out," but yesterday morning at church (before the service) I finally acknowledged that I had to redo it. So I tucked it away and on the way home, I ripped and ripped and ripped. (I really had quite a lot knitted.)

So now I am back to the beginning. I have figured out the math (thank you, Pythagorean Theorem!), how many stitches to increase and when. I have a feeling I won't be quite as obsessed now that I have a better feel for how the project is going to go (when I start something like this it's always, "just one more triangle" or "just until I finish the colour change") but it's a very easy project to take along with me and knit anywhere. That is always a good thing for finishing projects.

The only disadvantage to knitting this in public is the funny looks and blank stares when I answer the question of what I am knitting. "A stole." Yup, then comes the blank stare or funny look. People just don't know what to do with an unexpected response.

Maybe I'll just tell them I'm knitting a scarf. That should keep them happy.