Orion Cowl

I know my Sister-in-law admires infinity scarves (thanks to Pinterest, where she called them "Fall Essentials"), so I decided to make her one for Christmas. I admired Gap-Tastic and Marian, but in the end, I knew I wanted to go my own way. Part of the reason to create a new pattern is that I wanted to try real moss stitch (not seed stitch) where there is a 4-row-repeat. It’s nice!

I used sz 15 needles; I wish I had size 13s, but oh well. My gauge is always small anyway.
I knit mine with with 1.75 skeins of Thick & Quick Metallic. Unblocked it’s 8” wide and 26” in diameter. Very snuggly and stretchy with a lot of nice drape.
92 yards got me 4.5”, unblocked, so you can judge how much yardage you'll need.

Materials:
Super-bulky yarn, about 160 yards. (I used Lion Brand Thick & Quick Metallic in Constellation 140g/ 92 yards each)
Size 13 -15 US needles (9-10mm) depending on your preference and gauge.

Gauge (not super-important): 7.75 sts and 9 rows = 4"

CO 113, then knit 1st & last st together to join. Place marker. Begin pattern:
Row 1) k1, p1
Row 2) k1, p1
Row 3) p1, k1
Row 4) p1, k1

Repeat these 4 rows until it's tall enough (I stopped at 8")
End on row 3.

Bind Off is: k2tog, pass stitch back to L needle, *K2tog TBL, pass back to L needle, P2tog TBL, pass back to L needle* repeat. Nice & stretchy, without a glaring edge.

Block it if you want to, it may stretch out a bit with wear if you don't. I left mine unblocked though, it's just so squishy!

Enjoy your infinity scarf/ giant cowl!

Calyx pattern

The calyx is the ring of leaves behind a flower’s petals. It often is left behind attached to the top of the fruit, as in the case of an eggplant, strawberry, tomato, or persimmon.

We randomly have a lot of royal purple tulle, and so I suggested to DH that he could be an eggplant for Halloween. He loved the idea, but said he needed a stem & leaves, so I knit some.
There weren’t any patterns that were at all what I was looking for, so I made one up.

My original pattern has 4 leaves, and I really wish it had 5, so here’s the pattern re-written for 5 leaves. This (knitted with chunky yarn) fits an average man’s head (not tightly). For someone smaller, use smaller yarn & needles.

CO 8 sts on sz 8 needles.
I-cord 1”
Switch to sz 10 needles, I cord 2 rows.
Join in round, knit one row.
*KF&B* repeat around row.
K 1 row.
*KF&B, K1*.
K 1 row.
*KF&B K2*.
K 1 row.
*KF&B, K4*.
K 1 row.
Make every 4th stitch a purl to delineate the leaves and their veins. Keep these stitches as purls throughout, increasing around them (use stitch markers if necessary).
Continue increase pattern (keeping purl ditches as established) until 80 sts.
Knit 1” (I didn’t do this and really wish I had)

Knit back & forth on the first 16 stitches to make one leaf:
Sl1, K6, P1, K8
Sl1, Purl.
Sl1, K6, p1, K6, K2 tog. (15sts)
Sl1, purl.
Sl1, K1, PSSO, K5, p1, K5, K2 tog (13 sts)
s1, purl.
Sl1, K1, PSSO, K4, p1, K4, K2 tog (11 sts)
s1, purl.
Sl1, K1, PSSO, K3, p1, K3, K2tog. (9 sts)
s1, purl.
Sl1, K1, PSSO, K2, p1, K2, K2tog. (7 sts)
s1, purl.
Sl1, K1, PSSO, K1, p1, K1, K2tog. (5 sts)
s1, purl.
Sl1, K1, PSSO, p1, K2tog. (3 sts)
Last row: sl1, P 1, PSSO, K1, BO 1, tie off last stitch.

Repeat this for the other 4 leaves. Wear & be fruity or vegetable-ey as you please! (Though botanically speaking, they’re all fruits.)

To make this into a strawberry cap, knit the main part of the cap an extra inch or so before splitting off the leaves. Then do the leaves each as 8 sts wide instead of 16.

For a tomato, split the leaves off after an inch, but again make them 8 sts wide, and do extra straight rows between each decrease to make them longer). This gives 10 leaves instead of 5.

Life moves swiftly

It's been a busy year, I suppose, and time has flown. I can't believe it's December already! Thankfully we're done with trips out of town for a while, and we don't even have any scheduled visitors in the near future. The holidays will be very mellow this year.

I had planned to get so much more done by this point, but oh well. I'm still subbing occasionally, and party of the busy-ness of this fall was doing all the necessary bits & pieces to renew my license, like take several exams, etc. Subbing is still frustrating though, and I certainly don't want to become a classroom teacher. I'm such an anomaly- a woman who doesn't desire kids, a sub who doesn't want to be a teacher. That's just who I am, I guess. Sometimes I feel it would be better if I could find some other job that would take me from October through May, even if it paid less than subbing. I only work about 8 days a month on average anyway. Having a flexible schedule is lovely, but the work itself (when I can get it) is really wearing. I had to kick kids out of class the other day for fighting, and the past couple of years a lot of the kids have just been awful in general. I barely even get to knit in class any more, since I have to police them every second of the day even during videos.

Knitting itself has put forth several frustrations this year too, several projects showed themselves to be far too big about half-way through the process, prompting me to give up on one and rip the other back about 6 inches. But I persevered, and can now say I'm one sweater away from completing my 13 sweaters for 2010, though this last one will be the hardest of all, since it's for Ryan, and therefore a foot or more bigger in circumference than my normal knits.

So as usual, there's not much news from the Coos. We're getting to the final stages of planning our Costa Rica trip for a few months from now, and the dogs enjoyed the snow we received just before Thanksgiving (but didn't enjoy my Aunt's dog on Thanksgiving, unfortunately). Verne spent an awesome week+ with us recently, and my Mom, Bro & Nephew just were here for a long weekend. If you're reading this, it's probably your turn to visit! Come to the coast, we miss you all!

Anemones aren't very holiday-ish, but there you go....

Ok, so I posted my shark pattern, I might as well put up my notes from the anemones I made a few years ago as well, right? I'd love to see other peoples' versions!

These are just loose notes, not a pattern. The size of the finished creature is entirely up to you, based on how many you cast on, and how tall you knit the base. This pattern is super-easy, if you have basic knitting skills and can use DPNs, you can do this!

My colors were used to mimic the Giant Green Anemone (Anthopleura xanthogrammica) that we see all over our tidepools (since these were designed as presents for my fellow tidepoolologists), but feel free to use any colors that strike your fancy!

These were knit with several leftovers of acrylic worsted/aran yarns. Any yarn will work, and if you don't want to hold yarns doubled, just use bulky weight instead.
The yarns I used were: Caron Wintuk (brown), Lion Brand Wool-Ease worsted (darker green), Lion Brand Jiffy (olive).
For the tentacles, you will need a thin worsted shiny yarn in a contrasting color. I used TLC Cotton Plus.
US 8 (5mm) and US 6 (4mm) double-pointed needles.
Gauge is irrelevant.

Using size 8 needles and one strand brown and one strand olive-green worsted yarns held together, cast on 40 st (or thereabouts). Join in the round, and knit the tube (stockinette) about 4" (or as tall as you want it).

When the stalk is tall enough, wrap one stitch and turn as if to knit a short row. Turn the whole stalk inside out- the reverse stockinette is now the right side (voila- no purling!).

Switch the brown yarn strand for another shade of green, and knit the top of the anemone in stockinette. Use regular decreases, scattered around the row, every other row. Be sure to keep the top flat like a pie crust, rather than curved like a hat crown. A slight bulge is good though, realistic.

Once you have decreased down to about 10 stitches, bind off to form the gullet hole. Anemones have to eat, you know!

Now take your size 6 DPNS and a shiny worsted yarn, and pick up 4 stitches at the top edge (just inside the turning ridge where the stockinette meets the reverse stockinette).
I-cord for about 2.5-3 inches, then decrease 1 stitch to taper the tentacle. Do a few more rows of I-cord and then pull the end of the yarn through the last few stitches and pass it back through the length of the tentacle, tying it to the other end at the base inside the anemone.
Repeat the tentacles all the way around the edge, varying lengths slightly every other tentacle.



Because of the nature of stockinette, this anemone can actually curl in on itself to hide its tentacles, just as real anemones on rocks do when the tide is out!