This weekend I got to work on a hat/cowl/harf or whatever you want to call it. I’ve been thinking about making it for a long time. It started with this hat (now in the collection of Mrs. Loveforever)  and continued in an uncompleted crochet form made from a less wooly yarn. I never finished it, because I wanted to knit it. It is cold here. Cold! Today the wind chill was 5 degrees and I’m the only one walking around in a knee length coat. In my defense, I walk to work while it’s still dark outside, and everyone else is crazy. It’s cold.

So here’s what I came up with. A funny looking little cowl. I think it looks completely silly and I love it! I was wishing I had a snorkel when I took these photos, so imagine a snorkel and some hand drawn bubbles for effect.

I took it for a test run this morning and it kept my ears and face so warm! In all honesty, 5 degrees isn’t even that bad, but when it gets into the negatives, it hurts to breathe. I think this will help. I am so proud of myself because I made up the pattern myself, which required casting off and casting on again. That part I totally winged, and it worked.

I’m actually jumping in to designing my first knit hat pattern soon. The one thing I still need to figure out is how not to make the stripes step (I have the same problem as Betz White, it appears). If any of you know of a good tutorial, or just want to explain it to me in the comments, it’d be much appreciated.