Mistletoe Cowl: the origin
In Santa Cruz, we have a swap meet at the location of the former drive-in movie every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Except here, they call it “flea market.” I’m not sure what causes this etymological switch somewhere between southern California and the central coast, but when I say swap meet, people here have no idea what I am referencing. Nonetheless, “swap meet” I say.
Where was I? Oh, yes, the swap meet. So, a couple of Fridays ago, wandering down the aisles of junk, I saw a box full of yarn. Most of it was what you’d expect, hideous acrylics, but there, in the tub, was two balls of Lang Yarns Cashmere Tweed. I scored these soft little luxurious balls for only $2 each!
This yarn is a cashmere/merino blend and it is so soft. I knew I wanted to make a cowl out of it, something where I would use all the time, and really feel the softness right up against my face, and wouldn’t take very much yarn. I started with Susan Lawrence’s Tuesday Night Cowl from Knitting as Fast as I Can. In truth, I knit the entire two balls up into that cowl, and then realized two things at the end: 1) I didn’t have enough yarn to make it quite to the end of the cable pattern, so it was going to look weird and 2) I didn’t like the way the cable were laying that much. So I ripped the whole thing out.
I started again, using an entirely different cable pattern. This time, the results came out perfect. The cables creates organic, flow-y lines that remind me of twigs or vines. My working title for this project was Saturday Night Improv, playing off the name of Susan’s pattern and the fact that I was sitting around on a Saturday night knitting instead of having fun (such things happen when you have to get up early to work on Sunday). But now I’ve decided to call it Mistletoe Cowl.
The name is inspired by the twiggy, twiney nature of the cowl, and the color which reminds me of something earthen or woody. Druids believed that the bearer of mistletoe would be kept safe from all evil. I don’t think cold is inherently evil, but I don’t really like it that much either, and this cowl is my protection from it.
I love wearing this cowl, I love feeling the softness and the warmth around my neck and on my face. It fits exactly how I hoped it would. And it was pretty simple to make. I’ve been wanting to write up patterns to make available for download, and this is my very first one. I’m so excited! It can be downloaded for free over at Ravelry. If you knit this, leave me a comment so I can know how my first written pattern turned out. Thanks!
