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Next in the never-ending line of FOs from chez Stitch Brinn Stitch is a cowl I made for Anna-Marie of CorgiHillFarm (seriously, go buy her stuff, it’s amazing; I have, ahem, several braids).

Pattern: Pretty Thing by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn: Filatura Di Crosa Superior, about half a skein
Needle: US 6/4 mm (that’s bigger than called for but I don’t have a 16″ US 4 and I knit tightly)
Mod: None, knit as written

I would definitely classify this as a smoke ring. It’s just a soft little wisp of a thing, but it’s so soft. The yarn is mostly cashmere, and it feels like wearing a kitten (so says Anna-Marie). It’s a gorgeous pattern and so simple to knit: only 119 stitches around and 61 rows. It knits up in no time.

(ignore my face please)

It would have been completely easy street knitting except for the yarn. Knit up, the yarn is gorgeous and soft and warm and lovely and just so nice. All those words. During the knitting, though? Oh, the knitting. It’s stringy, splitty, and a tiny little barely-there strand that made knitting k2togs a PITA. It was Not Fun to work with, especially for the first couple rows before there’s anything there to pull the knitting down.

Once I was about a centimeter in to the knitting, it was much better. If I got annoyed with it, I just stopped knitting and petted it for a while. And it is only 61 rows. I highlighted each row as I was working it, and that let me keep track of where I was really easily. I don’t often work from printed patterns (I usually just bring them up on a computer or phone or something and work from there; it doesn’t help that I don’t have a printer at home), but I do like it for charts.

I will almost certainly make another of these for me. I won’t use lace weight (I’ve learned that lesson), but I think it would be really nice in something with some body. Something to make it stand up a little instead of pooling around the throat (which is fine, just not generally what I want in a cowl). Maybe I’ll combine some cashmere and some silk or a cashmere/wool blend and knit it out of that. I have about half a skein of the Superior left. Maybe I’ll hold it together with something sturdier and let the cashmere halo make it soft like kittens.

In the mean time, it’s shark central over here and I’m knitting a bunch more things for Anna-Marie. I also had time to knit a separate thing for me, but you’ll hear more about that later. I’m planning to participate in NaBloPoMo again this year, wherein I attempt to post every day for the month of November. I’ve attempted it for the last couple of years, but I’ve yet to be successful. Maybe this year.

In fandom news, I’ve finished my rewatch of SG1. Sam Carter is still my favorite person ever, but Vala is a pretty close second. I’ve since started watching the Justice League, which is delightful. My feelings about the Justice League can pretty much be summed up thusly: If you don’t love Hawkgirl, you’re wrong. I watched Batman: Year One and Justice League: Doom the other day and then last night I watched an episode of Justice League that had Cheetah, but she wasn’t voiced by Claudia Black, which was super disappointing. Incidentally, Nathan Fillian makes the best Green Lantern ever, and he should be Green Lantern in all the things. In general, I prefer Marvel heroes to DC, but I do love what a great job DC does with continuity in the Animated Universe. If you’re interested in hearing (reading) me geek out over Justice League and other nerdery, my Twitter account is a good place to go. And yes, we’re still reading I, Jedi. Joe’s got a pretty terrible cold, so that’s kind of put a damper on the reading. We’ll finish it one day.