Getting on.

Okay world.  I am ready for spring.  You can stop it with the snow.  It would be very pretty if it was November.  I am so over snow for this year.  I shall make my day by watching Kew Gardens on YouTube.  Even the winter there is striking and leaves me feeling better.  There is a ton of Monty Don on Britbox too, all of which will make my soul stronger.  I may yet get through this most recent pile of snow.

I kept my knitting to spring things yesterday.  My top is growing.

This is going to be today's work as well.  Two row stripes are lyrical.  Ridiculously lyrical.  

I did stop knitting on this about 2 p.m.  I still wanted to knit so I picked up socks and did a bit.  I only have about an inch to go on the cuff till I switch out to the cream.  

I did want to make a mention of something I only realized this winter. 

Remember my advent socks?  

I love these socks and wear them a lot, but each time I do, I have one thought.  These socks are too long. The cuff is much longer than my usual cuff, and it's just not premium.  I love to wear them though.  They remind me of the fun I had making them.  But they are too long.  My perfect length is this.

I fold the sock at the heel and if the cuff and foot are equal, it's perfect. It works just right with my kankles and thick calves.  

Time to go have some Rice Krispie squares.  It's a perfect breakfast, right?  And maybe a glass of orange juice.  Almost healthy.  

Repairs

Having decided that I was giving myself a day off from my cotton top, I faced up to sorting out my MashUp top. Here is where I was when I caught the error.  Okay.  Not quite true.  After after my first attempt at fixing it.  

Utter fail.  

I have no problems with repairs unless it is garter stitch.  I understand what to do and on rare occasions repair it first try, but generally, I mess something up.  SO this time I wanted to unravel a few more stitches and then to flip the sweater just as I would when knitting.  

It looks like a bit of a blip where the earlier repair was, but all is right and will be sorted out once it is blocked.  

That was enough for the day.  I have no idea why, but I was mentally fried after the job was done.  I think I build it up to being a much bigger deal than it was.  

I prepared what I needed for today's soup (pea soup), I made some rice Kristie squares for a quick treat and that was the sum total of my day.  Besides the usual laundry and dishes (The bane of my existence) of course.

It's back to work on my cotton top today.  Back to work.  Back to stripey joy.  And supposedly back to another day of expected snow.  Oh well. You take what you get and there it is. 

** I just realized how different the colours in the photos are!  The first is the truer colour.

Still going

I woke this morning and had no idea what day it was, Monday or Tuesday.  I was pretty certain that it wasn't a weekend day but... It took a while till the world righted itself but right itself it did.  Monday, Monday.

I had a good weekend knitting.  Not great but good.  I knit as much as I could on my Tshirt.  

Joined below the arms!  

I love working on this.  Two rows is so liberating and creative somehow.  I've not done two rows that often if at all for a sweater so it's nice to know that I like it.  My next plan for  Kauni sweater is two rows.  Two colourways.

Sadly, it's cotton and even though I am loving it, I can't knit too long on it without my hands feeling it.  I quit when I feel it.  In fact, today is going to be a no knitting it day.

I alternated knitting the top this weekend, with this.  

I only have the cuff left!  It feels like this is going fast.  Fast but there is a wee problem.  See that stitch marker?  I dropped a stitch on one of the short rows.  I probably ought to have gone back and redone it but you know me.  I can live with it, right?  Right.  I really can.  I will stabilize it when I am weaving in ends.  

The snow here is looking rotten.  It will all be gone soon.  The sun has too much power to be defeated now.  However...it is going to be stormy and snowy and rather miserable over the next few days.  It is the way of springtime in Canada.  

Stripes

It's Friday again and I ought to work on socks but I think I will go with my current obsession.

It's coming along and I am really looking forward to having this done.  It's just going to be nice.  Simple basic and good.

I love stripes.  I really do.  It's such a small thing but till you do it you don't quite understand it.  It focuses you on what's next.  You are always looking forward.  Even though logic tells you that you are working at your usual pace, it feels fast.  

All the mushy ice has gone, melted off by the power of the sun.  Yes there still is a 3 foot bank 9f snow on the lawn but it's looking old and shriveled.  It has a layer of the last snow on it but you can see that the covering is on old bones.  Spring is coming no matter what snow says.  

 

Repairs

I am wearing a favourite sweater this morning.  

It's a simple saddle shoulder sweater knit with some help from Ann Budds Knitting from the Top Down.  I used the start up numbers to get the neck size I want and to get the saddle right and then I go off and just knit.  The yarn is Custom Woollen Mills Mulespinner and Noro Silver Thaw.  This is my favorite yarn combination ever.  The two yarns just create magic.

I haven't worn it in ages because it needed repair.  

All of the armscyes  were a problem.  One had a section where two strands were floating and the loop of a stitch was just sitting there, free.  The problem arises from knitting the yoke a bit too short but also lies in the yarn.  The split for sleeves happened in a row of the Silver Thaw, which is a slightly less sturdy spin than the CWM.  

I found some Regal that is a perfect grey match to use for repairs.  I did what is essentially a duplicate stitch to beef up those pulled open stitches to reinforce the underarms.  

And voila.  Wearable again.  

I have a couple more things needing sorting out.  

This is my Green BFL 2/8 Elton.  I need it now.  It is the perfect lightweight spring and summer morning sweater.  That sleeve edge is iffy after getting caught on the dishwasher rack.

I also need to fix a summer top that gets lots of wear.  

I made a Cascadas Tee out of this bright yellow Patons Hempster.  I loved this yarn and was hoping for more but it was discontinued.  Still I love what I have and want to keep the tee going for a good while yet.  A tiny section of the neck band stitches need repair and this yarn is always at hand. 

So a few more repairs this morning and then two more renewed sweaters to put out, ready for wear.  And then I can spend my day on the fronts of the Lusk cotton sweater.  Fronts are on the menu for today's work.  

There was snow and slushiness happening outside the last few days.  If you are feeling down, search Kew Gardens on YouTube.  Even the winter stuff looks lovely to my winter weary prairie eyes.  Keep your spirits up.  The sun is getting strong enough now to beat the snow.       

Woe or Not

I spent the day yesterday frogging and reknitting.  It could have been soul destroying but it wasn't.  I am not working on my Mashup Top.  I am working on the cotton t shirt.

I put up this picture of the start of the top yesterday, and the more I looked at it, the more I did not like it.  I started out thinking wide stripes but I did not like the way the colours looked.  They were ... wrong somehow.  Too blocky?  That is not what I wanted.  Not at all.  I ripped back to row three at the very start of the neckline.  

If wide stripes were not working then how about narrow, two row stripes?  

There.  That's better.  That's what these colours need.  I want it to say is it a white t-shirt with cream stripes or a cream t-shirt with white stripes.  That's exactly right.  

And then I had to rip back a few rows.  I intend to machine wash this top.  That means it will shrink.  I want the shoulders a bit wider to account for that.  I am also going to make it longer because the length will likely shorten a lot.  

Meanwhile I have a couple inches to do on the back and then on to fronts.  Worsted cottons knit up so nice and fast.

A Spring Dig

That.  Was.  A.  Good.  Day.  I cleaned my room and then I dug in yarn.  It brings me such joy when I dig through it all. 

I think of my stash as sweater quantities.  That has always been how I think of it.  It was a measure of what I needed in my life.  Pre thyroid medication, I was cold.  Deeply inside me cold that seldom was fixed by wearing one warm garment.  Wool was like a hug and it helped. That's why, in my mind my stash all looks like this.

Nice tidy bags of sweater quantities all sorted and ready for use.  But...

There is lots of this.  Single skeins or 2 or 3 of brilliant colours that burst from the boxes.   There are about 7 boxes like this.  Lace weights and fingering weights and all sorts of lovely things.  The idea that all my yarn is sweater quantities is ludicrous.  

Even though all my yarn is now in the closet and I no longer have an inspiration cabinet (it's a second sweater chest) it all fits in the closet.

Two of the boxes have significant space in them so next fall, I will probably merge them.  By then, there may be space in another box.  Who knows.

I forgot to put away ant of my winter sweater yarns but I did pull out a few yarns that I want to use for this summers crop of sweaters.  

The green is for Rebecca Clow's Airundle.  I thought very seriously about buying the perfect green yarn but I have this.  The crisp green is my current colour obsession, FYI.  This is close to perfect and it will do.  It is some St Denis Boreale, a sadly discontinued yarn that I will hold double.   I found a couple skeins to use for repairs on current sweaters too.  I pulled these all out to set up for projects.  Unfortunately I am out of the bags I like to use for pre projects, so I have to do something about that.  

I did rearrange the stash boxes so that the bins of cottons are easily reachable.  There are a few other yarns I want tops from before summer is done but I can't pull out the entire stash.  Well, I could but you know how it is.  

And then I went to have some tea and knit.  I know I have two very recently started projects but my knitting heart is not into them right now.  So this happened.

I have a giant box of Handicrafter cotton for pin loom weaving dishcloths, and one giant ball was pure white.  There was also some cotton yarn from a frogged project in the box.  It struck me that they would make a great speedy summer t shirt.  

And so it goes.  A new knit and yarn to dream with.  What a lovely thing...even if it snowed again last night and covered the rotten snow with a blanket of soft white.  It would be pretty in October.  But April?  Not so much.

Discombobulated

It was an odd sort of weekend.  I wanted to do something but everything I did was not right.  I didn't want that or this or anything.  I was discombobulated and unsettled and out of sorts.  

Friday I was knitting on my Mashup Top.  I was feeling good about that but then I saw I dropped a stitch 5 rows below.  I fixed it once and then saw that I missed the first of the dropped rows of yarn so I did it again.  Then this.

I set it aside.  I can't do repairs like this if I am frustrated.  I'm not ready to do it today either.  

I picked up my Kauni sweater and worked desultorily on that.  My heart wasn't in it so there isn't much progress.  Even then progress was slow because I am at the counting part where I needed to know my stitch number and gauge to check if I am ready to split for sleeves.  

What I really feel like doing is a deep stash dive.  The thought of that appeals to me.  I can pull out what I need to make repairs on a few sweaters and I can see what appeals to me for spring and summer garments.  I can also put some of my winter sweater making away.  It seemsmy desires were bigger than my knitting speed. As usual.

I did come across a movie that I really enjoyed.  It as an old one and really great if you are a Father Brown fan.  The movie was The Detective with Alec Guiness.  It is the closest representation of the Father Brown to the books in character.  In my opinion of course.  It's a gem of a movie.  

And that's it for today.  I have to go find my vacuum now.  Before the stash dive, I must deep clean the floors.   

Sock!

And somehow, since yesterday, there is a crust on top of the rotten looking snow piles on the front lawn.  Winter is not broken yet but it is looking like an old decrepit man today.

I didn't feel like knitting on sweaters.  I picked up a sock.  

The first of the green sock pair is complete.  I don't really know why but this basic sock with that worksock red stripe makes my heat beat faster.  Plus this.

The toe of sock two!  I am pretty chuffed at this.  Might be a pair of socks completed sooner rather than later.  

I also have started to notice that my sock knitting seems to be more likely to happen on Tuesday rather than Friday.  So I will pronounce  Tuesday as my sock day.  I suspect I will now find myself doing sock knitting on a different day because that is just how things go. 

 

Knitting Work

It's a sunny morning today and yet far from spring.  There is usually a point in March where I feel winters back is broken and spring is here but this year?  Not yet.  It remains winter.  Maybe next week?  

I didn't do a lot of knitting yesterday.  I got nicely deep into the green part of the Kauni.  

It isn't going to show much here but I am halfway through this set of 10 rows.  

The other thing I wanted to show was this.

I wanted the center of the neck ribbing to be at the back of my neck but I wanted the beginning of the rounds to be at the raglan increase part.  You can see the ends yarn marking those.  I don't do it often but on the garter stitch neck band it seemed like the right thing to do to minimize the slight differences in the way garter stitch looks where the rounds meet.  

I am wearing my Lusk sweater this morning and am reminded again how much I like the fit of this sweater by Rebecca Clow.  It also reminds me how much I want to knit another.  I think there will be at least one summer knit in this pattern and I want to make a blend of Ysoda Teague's Anyday sweater and Lusk for a yarn in one of my project ready bags.

I hope for a bit more knitting today.  I also hope the dishes do themselves and that the floor sweeps itself so...oh well.   To work.  If all work were knitting work how lovely it would be.  

Just Different

It was a great weekend.  I made my raisin bread and have been enjoying raisin toast with peanut butter or cheese.  And Keith made some peanut butter French toast.  Yummy.  Plus it was the Japanese Grand Prix.  What a great race.  

And knitting.  Oh my.  Wonderful doesn't begin to describe it.  

That brown you see is actually purple and I utterly love how it looks.  There is an intensity and a depth to the colours that don't show up in pictures.  What you can see is Kaunis very gentle change to green which is the next colour in the skein.  It fades so delicately.  Sigh.  I love Kauni and I am glad I have a good stash of it.  

It's also lyrical knitting.  It changes before you ever get tired of the colour or the stitch.  Now you may think all that garter stitch must be tough but not if you do it the way I do.  I wrap my purls the wrong way and the result is that knit rows are knit through the leading leg of the stitch, the back leg, and the purls are my normal purl which is easy and flows just like a knit stitch.  When I started knitting everyone told me I was doing it wrong.  I learned how most of you do it and now, when I knit, I knit to get what I want in the most comfortable efficient way.  There are places and times when my way is better and y'all are doing it wrong.

In knitting, if you get the product you want, and if you are enjoying your knitting, you are NEVER knitting wrong.  Hold that to your heart.  If you understand what everyone else does, and you can do that and you find a better way to get there in your own inimitable style, you win in every way.  

When someone says you are doing it wrong, just smile and tell them it's not wrong. Its just different.

Ooooooo

Now this is fun.

Though my photo looks Grey, the Kauni is a muted worn denim blue, purple, green, light denim blue range of colours (The colourway is EF)  

I think you can see the reason why I went with this lovely soft heathered brown for the garter stitch sections rather than the initial choice of cream.  The creamy oatmeal would look harsh against these very muted hues.

Somewhere in the next two rows the colour will morph from blue to the hazy purple.  It makes me giddy with joy.  A very simple joy.

I know I ought to be working on a sock today but I am going to stick with this.  Next week, I will go back to the Mashup and make that my weekday work and leave this treat for weekends.  That does seem to have worked in keeping my progress on several projects through the winter.  There will be sock knitting somewhere this weekend but for now I will stick with the pretty.  

I am making some raisin bread today for toast and for French toast.  I have no idea where the idea came from but as I was setting puzzles yesterday, it became a need.  It looks like a day with lots to do, all of it fun.  

Joy

After posting yesterday, I did a good dig in my WIPs bin and I checked on all the projects I had planned to knit this winter.  It seems I have almost run out of winter.  It's time to think summer.  That means there needs to be a stash dive and before that happens, I need to do a good spring clean in my room.  There will be lots to do the next bit. 

Meanwhile I did dig out my Mashup top.  

One side of the front/back body is complete.  The other is about 2/3 complete.  I made a bit of progress yesterday.  It's nice easy knitting,  all garter stitch.  At the moment there is no counting.  It's just straight back and forth.  It gets a bit counted later but only so I can match the side that is already complete. 

I did that for a while.  It was lovely.  I sat surrounded by all the bags of my projects that are bagged and ready to go.  I had a good look at all of them again.  I can't wait to knit these yarns.  Surrounded by my dreams is a happy place.

And then I caved.  

I grabbed one of the projects that would be perfect to wear in this season of some days winter, some days spring.  I started working on my sweater dream I played with on the cowl last fall.  

 The original inspiration for this comes from a garment I saw on Pintrest of all things, and I do have a similar one marked on my Favourites on Ravelry.  All of the sweaters like this that I have seen seem to have used the Margot from Knitty Fall 2009 as a base pattern.  I don't like Margots neckline.  Boatnecks are not my thing.  I am going to use the trusty numbers from Ann Budd's Top Down Sweaters as the start of mine.  

I am using some of my much loved Tove stash and some of my Kauni.  These are both sticky type yarns, mildly rustic.  Toothy is the word I am looking for. I think they will work wonderfully together.  

It was late in the day when I started and you know how that goes.  

 Sometimes, you should wait till morning.  I made a stupid choice and pulled from the center of the skein.  Dumb dumb dumb.  Sticky toothy type yarns don't really like to be pulled from center pull balls.  They much prefer to be used from the outside.  I spent a very good part of my evening sorting the yarn barf.  It doesn't look like much here but I had created a real mess.  

All is good now.  I can get down to some serious knitting today and maybe I can make it to using the Kauni.  I can't wait.  I adore Kauni.  

Complete

And here it is.

I am sorry it is not displayed better but I love it.  It took me most of the day to get the ribbing done on the bottom.  I ended up knitting the ribbing three rows longer than I did at first.  The best way to defeat flipping is to go longer.  That worked and it looks great.  

Today I am going to dig the WIPs bin to find my Mashup Top and make some progress on that.

Substantial Completion

So here we are. 

I am so pleased.  So how come there is this? 

 The sweater remains on the needles.  

I did the bottom with one of those tricks so the ribbing doesn't flip. I really didn't want flipping for this narrow hem.  It's too lovely a sweater.  I tried the trick once before with not great results.  So... what happened this time?  Utter fail.  The flip was worse than ever before.  It's rare that I can't live with small imperfections but this?  This crossed the line.

Right after I finished the second sleeve, I ripped back the ribbing and restarted in my time honored way.  I have a few rows to go yet so while this is technically not completed, we have substantial completion.  Ish. 

As soon as this is done I am going to pull out my Mashup top from the WIPs bin.  Time to get that done.  And the I hope to whip up a couple summer things.  Maybe.  Or a blanket.  We will see. 

And just a shout out to the universe, my coffee tastes SO good this morning.  

Spring Things

This was a very productive weekend.  I almost got everything I hoped for done.  My plan was to finish my London Fog sweater.  

Sleeve one  is done and sleeve two is more than half done.  I could have finished sleeve two but on Saturday morning, this happened.

I simply fell into sock knitting and it felt really good.  If you look at the last post, you can see how far I took it.  It's just fun to work on it.  In a way, it feels as if it rejuvenated my knitting life.

It is more likely that it is the extra sunlight we have in March.  In March it feels like spring even though we are a way away from actual spring weather.  As you see, my London Fog has short sleeves.  That's a spring decision.  (It's also a running out of yarn decision.  I could not have made it to 3/4 length sleeves).  

Spring is in my head and it's time to pull out my Mashup sweater .  This is the third spring for it and I would like to see it be a complete garment.  It's time.

I want it all

I had a good day knitting yesterday.  Indeed, it was a good day overall.

I stuck with London Fog and I am very pleased. I was a bit concerned about having a good match of the colours but it's pretty good. It may look a bit stripey but that is the nature of hand dyed yarns.  I alternate skeins and I am good with what happens.  I hope to finish this sleeve today.   

It's also Friday.  I know that I had planned for socks for Fridays and this week, with my midweek sock day, I am not sure.  

Okay.  I am sure.  It's so cute and I want cute socks. I guess I will knit both!  

Socks

I needed to knit yesterday.  I needed to knit as if spring was right inside my little knitting world.  The problem was that every project I took out was not right.  

I thought for sure the Staffin would be right.  Something new and different but no.  I took out the London Fog but no.  I looked at all the socks and none of it felt right.  I looked at my bag of sock yarns and thought maybe?  

And then this happened.  It was truly delightful.  A pair of basic work socks and my soul is filled.

I started knitting a pair of socks in stash yarn in similar colours a while ago but I was really not satisfied with the yarns.  My main green yarn was too different in weight from the Kroy I was using for the toes.  It was just wrong.  When I ordered this yarn

 to make a Flea for me since my first one had a gauge issue,  (The first can be seen going about cheerfully around Saskatoon.) I also bought this yarn.  

Drops Fiesta.  A really nice Dk weight yarn that is perfect for socks.  

I made a pair of socks last year from it and have leftovers but not enough for more socks.  It seemed right to pick up more Fiest and then, after making my planned socks in this new yarn, could make another pair with the everything that remains.  

So I started another pair of socks.  I have lots of sock yarns and socks on the go but a good pair of socks on 3.25 mm Dpns just what I needed. Yesterday was just the right sort of day for new green socks.  

Today I will go back to knitting on the London Fog.  It's sleeves won't take long if I stick to it and maybe, just maybe, I will have a new sweater to wear next week.   

Just sayin'

Then it's just sleeves.

Almost at the ribbing.

I want to complete two rows in this skein, and then the ribbing will be done with one skein rather than altering two.  And next is simple sleeves.  I have to weigh the yarn I have for sleeves so I can split it in two evenly.  I do have bits left from other skeins but I would rather not use them.  I kind of have a plan for them.

Somewhere in the many boxes of stash there is a single skein of soft kelp green from Midknit Cravings.  It coordinates perfectly with the London Fog color.  I hope to be able to make a nice striped cowl.  At the moment I am thinking a Litmus cowl.  I might not have enough to do that but if not, something in the line of a Huj Tub cowl , striped, will be a perfect wearable for keeping the chill off the back of my neck on windy days.  

On to the ribbing now.  Lots to do.  Plenty to knit.  And endless cups of tea in lieu of my beloved coffee.  One hiccup in a wonderful world.  

Then it's just sleeves.  

My Quandry

I didn't get much done on my socks.  I did not really feel it and my hands were quite shaky.  Saturday was much better for knitting and I had a decent amount of knitting time.  

I stayed with my London Fog sweater.  It is getting so close to the ribbing it hurts, so to speak.  It was still a bit of a challenge to knit though.  It was such an interesting weekend.  It was the second race of the F1 season and with all of the regulation changes, it is a sort of chaos, mechanical troubles, reliability problems but more than that, it is really interesting racing as the drivers learn how to get the most out of their cars.  Its very exciting and I can't knit when it is too exciting.  My tension gets much too tight.

I am staying with the London Fog sweater till it's done.  I think.  I have to tell you that this box of yarn

Is calling to me.  I know there  are things I ought to be doing instead but it's my knitting and I can do what I like.  I am the only knitting police.  At the same time I love finished objects so unless I stick with a thing I won't have it to wear or to snuggle under.  It's such a quandary. 

Did I mention I have a pretty darn good life?  If the worst thing in a day is which thing should I knit, it just cannot be bad.  

Sock Day

It's Friday again and that means socks.  Let's have a look.

Not a huge change since I picked it up last but there is change.  That makes me happy.  It means there will be socks this year.

One of the wee differences between magic loop socks and my more usual dpns seem to be a slightly looser gauge.  It's not enough to make a huge difference between socks in a pair, about two stitches over the whole width, but it is a bit looser.  I am sure that will adjust as I get more practice on the long needle.  

I hope to make it to the heel today.  We shall see.  With our changeable spring weather and the general tiredness from time change, my hands are much shakier than normal.  I will give it a shot and see how it goes.

Almost there.

I made it to the last series of garter ridges. 

I am following the set up and ridges from the Willard sweater for this and it is giving me a very pleasing result.  

This all means that I have 10 to 15 rows of knitting (depending on how long it is) till I start the ribbing.  Then all that remains is sleeves.  

I did a try on before the last ridge set and am very pleased.  I would not have needed the last set of increases but it will be OK.  It's certainly not worth  reknitting.  The top fits really nicely and that's the part that really matters in a sweater.  

I am wearing my Myrtle sweater today.  It's really great to have it back in the rotation.  It also reminds me of the other sweaters that need some repair.  Most of them need some sleeve cuff repair so it won't take much time to do it.  I do need to get it done because several of them are spring favourites.  

And that reminds me of a sweater in my WIPs bin.  It is the third spring from the cast on.  Time to get that done.  I think I am going to have to head there right after the London Fog sweater is done.   

Meandering Through Cowl Patterns

While knitting, I spend a lot of time dreaming about what else I want to knit.  The last few days I have been wearing this and generally admiring it.   

I have spent way to much time looking at it, admiring the colour change and flow.  I love Kauni and long colour changing yarn.  I can hardly wait to knit the Kauni sweater I have planned to knit as this is.  Garter stitch in a plain yarn and Kaubi stockinette.

Wearing this also makes me want to knit cowls that will work with each of the sweaters I knit.  I have always worn my shawls as neckwarmers in winter and as shawls in summer.  The disadvantage of my shawls is the ends untucking and getting in the way.  Cowls don't have that problem.  

Why cowls you might ask.  Because I cant seem to knit a turtleneck that sits right on me.  I have a short neck and jowly chin and find they just bunch up my sweater when I wear them.  It's okay wearing one as an under layer to the days sweater but I don't want to wear one everyday all day.  I can take a cowls off on sunny afternoons when the house warms from the sun shining in.  

Here are a couple that I wear all the time.  

Three colour Cashmere Cowl by Joji Locatelli

Topsy Turvy Moebius by Susan Rainey 

Huh Tub by Natsha Sills

I think there will be more of each of these plus a few more of the Litmus Cowl by Jude Harper which is a plain narrow tube that is striped.  It is perfect when wrapped twice around your neck.  

I am certain there are a bunch of other great cowl patterns out there that will be perfect to wear with my knits. I think today, in between my knitting time, I will take a gander and see what else I can find.