Palette Cleanser or Panacea

Do you know what?  Trying on a garment in progress can be tedious, particularly when you put said garment on a piece of yarn rather than just popping it on needles.  Even more so when the thread breaks halfway through trying to put it on the string and then you eventually get it all back on and everything is ok, but you have a million ends hanging everywhere and you don't know what you tied off to what end and...

That is how my yesterday felt..

I opted for a split hemline.  I am going to give it 4 inches, I think and then we will see.  I could go a smidgen longer if needed, but 4 inches takes me to where I want the end to be.  The ends will be lapped, so if I don't like how it performs, if it flips or doesn't look like I hope it looks, I can always make it work better without too much pain.  It's a hem.  Good to go.

Of course that did not get settled on right away.  I had to put the whole thing down after the 'putting the sweater on a string' thing.  And when we put something in the corner for a time out, we must, perforce, start something new. We need a panacea.

I keep coming across some really yummy bits in my sock ends box. Not sock ends but rather the remainders of 3 very yummy skeins of Illimani Royal Alpaca.  I used them last year to make some gifts.  

There is a fair chunk left of all three colours, and it is so delicious a yarn that they can be only one thing.  A cowl.  Just a nice scarf width simple cowl in a mistake rib stitch.  I hope to get it long enough to wrap around my neck twice, but if it only makes it once, c'est la vie.

I will probably be fairly monogamous on the sweater, so this wee new project will probably sit till I have a strong need to do something else.  I do have that fascinating twisted stitch project to work on, but it makes entire days disappear and I really do want the sweater finished. It isn't a good in between project.  This wee bit of goodness will be a great palette cleanser between courses of sweater knitting.