And then on Sunday when I finished TGCK no. 2 and I had to wait until Friday for the 3rd pattern in the series to be published, this yarn just started calling to me to be made into a nice warm cowl.

This is my progress so far, I just started knitting and this is what’s happened. (colours are closer to the ones in the pictures above than in this picture).

And I probably shouldn’t mention the Malabrigo Sock in Tiziano Red that also somehow found it’s way into my bag.

This is destined to be used for the final pattern in The Great Cowl KAL, the moment I saw the cowl, I just thought this has to be made in Malabrigo, although the pattern does call for a slightly thicker yarn, I’m sure this will work wonderfully.

So while waiting I’ll leave you with a picture of the yarn I’ll be using for this cowl, I should have enough as I only need 410 yards (exactly) and this skein of Soctopus Sokkusu Original has 433 yards. I’ll be using my 3.25mm circulars as recommended.

End Date: February 12, 2012

Original Deadline: February 16, 2012

This is how my A Very Good Cowl turned out:

I used 3.25mm needles as suggested in the pattern and the last 80g of Araucania yarn I had left over from 2 years ago after making my first Ishbel, I now only have about 1.5m/1.65yds left over.

Since the pattern can be modified easily to do as many repeats as you like of either Chart A or B, I decided to risk doing 3 repeats of A, followed by 2 of B and finishing with another 3 repeats of A, the risk paid off and I still had enough yarn to do the 8 rows of garter stitch at the beginning and end of the pattern.

End Date: February 2, 2012

Original Deadline: February 8, 2012

This is how my Flurries Cowl turned out:

I used Fibres D’Art Cotton/Acrylic blend in white and needles sizes recommended in pattern. I made one extra repeat of the Brioche section, other than that followed the pattern.

The first Cowl is a freebie, and if you complete it within the deadline and send her a link to your Ravelry Project Page with some other info, then you get the next Cowl pattern for free. The same goes for the second Cowl, if you finish it within the deadline then the next one on the list is also yours for free.

I decided to join in and already finished the first one in plenty of time to spare. On to the next one.

So I was fooling around with some designs during my “winter” vacation and came up with this design similar to something I’d seen in a pattern book, and then I found the perfect yarn at Ovelha Negra.

I’m using Artesano 100% Alpaca DK colour SFN010 and Rico Design Creative Poems colour 010. Although the Artesano is a bit thinner than the Creative Poems, the cowl is coming out really nice so far.

Yarn Adventures was present again, and even though I told myself I would have to resist, I caved, I wasn’t able to resist bringing home the black/grey (fireplace) and the yellow right underneath it (solar power).

Micky showed off the lovely shawl she knit for her mother, the Seaside Shawlette by Wendy Gaal. Micky knit hers in Lopo Xavier Phoebus by the looks of it, forgot to ask, stupid me. Isn’t it gorgeous though….

Maria José was working on a linen stitch scarf (lengthwise!!!!!). I believe she was using Manos Del Uruguay Silk Blend in pink with Yarn Adventures in the heather/grey colour, It’s coming out lovely.

I tried, but horribly failed to get a photo of Mari‘s knitting, she’s just too fast and doesn’t sit still long enough to get a decent shot. Seriously socks fly off her needles like nobody’s business. I mean I knit fairly fast, but if I was in a race with Mari, I’d be left behind to eat her dust for sure.

Cynthia, was working on a Tweed Fair Isle sweater, which looked gorgeous. Unfortunately she wasn’t paying too close attention to what she was doing, and ended up tinking back every now and again. Obviously that’s a good sign that the conversation was completely enthralling.

And I was working on my Dahlia cardigan, I’m at the part where it’s just plain old stocking stitch except for the 6st moss border, so it’s the best project to work on while sitting and chatting, I actually got a lot done, hopefully I can quickly finish the left side to finally start on the sleeves. I’m still not sure whether to make full length or 3/4 length sleeve, I guess I’ll see when I finally get to that part.

You take them to the beach of course for about an hour and let them run and play with all the other dogs, that way they tire themselves out and then sleep the rest of the afternoon.

That’s exactly what I did yesterday morning, it was sunny, the beach was practically empty, and the tide was going out, so a lot of beach to run and play on. We made some new friends, almost all Labrador Retrievers and Dakota outran every single one of them, they tired long before Dakota was done, guess it was a good thing there were about 5 of them running around on the beach.

I didn’t find anything suitable, and decided to design my own. And I came up with this Slip Stitch design, very simple, and a quick knit, just needs som light blocking and then I can give it to my gran so she can start wearing it.

Rusty needed to get in on the action, here he is modeling the finished cowl.

Last year Garnstudio decided to have a sale on all their yarns that contained Alpaca, well, I took full advantage of this, and ordered some Drops Alpaca and Drops Andes, in hindsight, I should have ordered a lot more.

However I’m very happy with my Drops Alpaca, the moment I saw and felt the grey I knew I had to use it for the Dahlia Cardigan that I’ve admired for some time, so during my holidays I started it and even though it’s been put on the back burner for now, due to some other commitments, I should have it finished soon, it’s definitely knitting up a dream.