Knitting 'til the cowls come home.

After hearing about Cathy Carron's newest book Cowlgirls this summer and seeing a sneak preview in last year's VOGUEknitting holiday edition, I have been YEARNING for it, dreaming of all the fantastic and luxurious cowls to come! But before I go too much further, let me start by explaining one my favorite guilty pleasures. I am absolutely addicted to buying knitting books and then never actually using them. I like to tell myself "Oh, but they are for inspiration!" or "Oh, well I'll no doubt have to get so much help on that pattern, we'll just save it for the next project!" But really, when I bought each book I had every intention of actually making the projects and they instead are just collecting dust on the bookshelf.

But Cowlgirls has been different. Perhaps its because Cathy is right, cowls really are "the neck's big thing to knit". Or perhaps it has been the sheer accessibility of the book.

A few weeks ago when I was in-between projects, I decided to pull out some of my very own handspun and finally do something with it. So a little side note, this past summer I did this incredible internship all the way out in St. Helens, Oregon! I can honestly say it was the best summer that I have EVER had. So at this internship I lived with and worked for the fabulous Trish Andersen, sometimes known as Trish the Dish. Trish owns Tanglewood Fiber Creations which produces and sells the absolute, most gorgeous handspun and hand-dyed luxury yarns. One of my goals this summer was to learn how to spin and thankfully Trish was able to teach me. So I am probably going to talk about Trish a lot! We talk almost every week and we’ve already seen each other twice since I left her in the summer. And of course I can’t forget about Emily. Emily was the other intern this summer and she is just the greatest. (I promise to do a tribute to Trish and Emily in a later post.)

So back on track…Can you tell I’m a little ADD? Where was I? Oh right, my handspun! So I have been spinning here and there when I can squeeze it in. But I pulled out some of my handspun and needed a project. I opened up and flipped through Cowlgirls and I settled on “all buttoned up”. It turned out awesome!!

Here is a picture of me at the beautiful new Loops location in South Tulsa. I am wearing the "all buttoned up cowl"! The yarn in this cowl is called fireworks and is actually a Tanglewood yarn. But
since I’m a starving college student and can’t exactly afford Tanglewood, Trish graciously gave me some fireworks roving to spin up myself! What a doll. Also, I am in the process of knitting "the honeycomb" in this picture!

And then while I was in Tulsa last week at Loops, the yarn shop, hanging out for a Tanglewood trunk show, I started another! This time I made the first pattern in the book, "the honeycomb"! I chose to do this one in red and black in the Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande Tweed, maybe one of my new favorite yarns by the way and a Loops best seller. It is extremely easy to knit on and has a softness that rivals cashmere.

Really I want to call this one “queen of hearts” - that seems just perfect to me - but unfortunately that’s already the name of another pattern in the book.

The cowl turned out so cute and before I was even finished I was picking out the yarn for the next cowl! All I could think about was knitting another, and another...and wait, another! I was dreaming cowls... talking cowls...eating cowls... And then Shelley, the “loopslady” as many people know her online, had an amazing idea! Shelley suggested that I start a blog and knit my way through Cowlgirls, kind of like the movie Julie and Julia. I totally fell in love with the idea or as Trish might say, "I LOVE this plan!"

So here we are today, my second blog entry and feeling unstoppable. Pull out your needles and join me for the ride because I'll be knitting 'til the cowls come home!

Mariel.

Getting to know me.

I think I have writer’s block. Is it possible to get writer’s block over a blog? I have been trying to get this blog going for a over a week now and I just haven’t been able to get the words out. I find myself instead singing “Getting to know you, getting to know all about you,” when trying to write the “about me”. That song by the way is from the King and I. If you haven’t seen it, it is a classic Rodgers and Hammerstein and well worth the rent or purchase. But anyways, its time to get this show on the road.

So a little bit about myself. I am twenty years old and I am a junior at the University of Alabama. I grew up in Nashville, TN where my parents and both of my sisters and their husbands still live. We have a family business that has proven to be very successful. We own three hair salons in Nashville called JonAlan and my parents, especially my mother, deserve all the credit. It is a lot of fun but don’t get me wrong, it’s a LOT of work. I often find myself fighting for attention from my family, begging them to drop the salon talk for at least an hour! And while I am fighting for attention from my parents over the salon, I think they would say they are fighting for my attention over Sam.

Sam is my high school sweetheart and we have now been dating for six years! He is my everything. So of course when I come home on the weekends, I want to spend all my time at Vanderbilt visiting Sam, and my dad just begs and begs me to hang out at home. But luckily, I just had winter break and my dad and I got to spend a lot of time together over the break.

I’m going to leave my introduction there and I hope that you’ll get to know me better and better as you continue to read!

Mariel.