Zuzu's Petals - fingering

This is my very first project using fingering weight yarn! And if that weren't a cool enough fact all by itself, the yarn I'm using is a lovely ball that I found at a thrift shop for only 99 cents! How's that for cool?!

The yarn didn't come with a manufacturer's label on it, so I have no idea what brand it is or even what the fiber content is. It kind of feels like it has cotton in it; it might even be 100% cotton, for all I know. I just liked the color - it reminds me of the faded grayish blue of denim blue jeans, and I think it will make a lovely Zuzu's Petals cowlette. This is a paid pattern designed by Carina Spencer.

Because the width of the neck opening was only 16 inches when I reached the end of section 1, I knew I would need to keep adding width to make it be possible to pull the cowlette over my head. I decided to work two more 12-row repeats, hoping that would bring the width to something closer to 20 inches wide, which I figured would be a dimension that would fit better over my head. That meant my final stitch count at the end of section 1 was 151.

End of section 1 with 103 stitches

 

End of section 1 with 151 stitches

As I got toward the end, I was worried about losing at yarn chicken (running out of yarn, in other words). So I skipped the optional purl round and instead went directly to the cast off. But then, after casting off, I could see that I did actually have enough yarn left on the skein to be able to do the purl round, so I tinked back the cast-off round and added the purl round before casting off again. I just knew that I would always regret not having the purl round in there, if I didn't add it, because it really does help straighten out the edge curling, even before blocking. 

Before blocking

I could have saved myself the trouble of tinking back if I had weighed my skein when working the last few rounds. If I had weighed it, I would have been able to know that I'd have enough to work the last optional purl round before casting off. Live and learn! But it was pretty close!

Blocking

Gauge

Caedwyn Cowlette paid pattern

I like the way this project turned out. The pattern is Caedwyn Cowlette by Corrina Ferguson.

Caedwyn Cowlette fingering experiment

I started off just knitting a random garter and stockinette top-down shawl triangle in fingering weight yarn. The yarn is Lion Brand Sock-Ease in the Taffy colorway. As the triangle grew, I decided that I wanted to finish it with the lace in-the-round portion of the Caedwyn Cowlette, so I knit the triangle until it had 158 stitches on each side (which is double the stitch count of the Caedwyn pattern for worsted weight yarn) to set up a base for the lace.

So the top of this cowlette does not follow Corrina's pattern, but the bottom lace portion does.

I don't remember the details now, but I seem to recall having to add a stitch or two in the first row of the lace to get the stitch count to come out right.

In addition to the stitch marker that shows the beginning of the round, I found it helpful to also place stitch markers on either side of the shape that grows out from the bottom front point of the cowlette (you will see where those stitches begin and end in the pattern instructions)