Maple Tree Cowl!!!!

I published my first paid pattern on Ravelry!

Super excited, with a squee and dancing around the house as I made my first sale would be an understatement!!

It is hard to publish...anything. You are putting your baby out for judgement.  I am proud of my design and know that it will change over time and they will get better with time.  Please give a try and some love!

I love trees; big trees, little trees, growing green ones, even hibernating trees… I think you get the idea. They also represent family and knowledge. While designing this pattern I used five repeats of the tree motif. One for each member of my immediate family!

The cowl is knit from the bottom up starting with a shell edging that creates a scallop reminiscent of tree roots. Knits and purls create texture for the tree trunk and basic lace is used to create leaves and the effect of light filtering through the crown of the tree. A nice garter stitch edging finishes the piece for a clean look around the throat.

It is important to me that patterns can be used in many different ways and I designed this motif with endless possibilities in mind. The pattern is both charted and written. The cowl can be reversible and modified to fit the knitter’s needs. More repeats can be added to make a loose cowl, or needles and yarn can be changed to give a different look!

Level of Difficulty: Beginner and beyond (comfortable with knitting in the round, yo, ssk, and k2tog)

Yarn: 
Knit Picks Swish DK (100% Superwash Merino Wool – 123 yards) Allspice or 120 yards of a DK weight yarn

Needles: 
US 7/4.5mm – 16” circular

Notions: 
Tapestry needle to weave in ends 
Stitch markers (5 with one different to mark the beginning of the round)

Gauge: 18 sts per 4” and 26 rows per 4” – however, gauge is not critical

Finished Dimensions: 21” circumference and 6.5” tall

Hats

I am going to try to blog my fiber experiences and ideas from Lander, Wyoming. I moved with my family to Lander in August 2012. A lot of changes have happened in the last 5 months. I wonder where the time has went. . . it feels like we just moved here yesterday. One of the most important events was my mother's diagnosis with stomach cancer the day before Thanksgiving. She asked me if I would knit her a bunch of hats for the chemo treatments and of course I said yes! When I flew back to New York in December we went to our local yarn store, Finger Lakes Fibers, in Watkins Glen, NY. My mother picked many beautiful yarns and we chose a book that I had been eyeing for some time: Weekend Hats by Cecily Glowik MacDonald and Melissa Labarre. The second hat from the book that I am working on is the "Flyer Cap." I am using a beautiful blue Cascade Pima Cotton. You will notice that there are no buttons yet. . . they are on order from Knit Picks! Here is the first hat I made from the book. I did not finish the hat completely because my Mom already had a button she wanted to use. I also left the ribbon long in case she needed to resize the hat.