Wham Bam Thank You Lamb Cowl worked in Fisherman’s Rib stitch
Hello, world!
Go figure, it’s been a while. My son is nearly a year old now and I’m beginning to wonder if any of the insane chaos that is parenting two babies born 15 months apart will ever settle into something resembling normalcy. We have a blast, these kids and I, but obviously there is very little knitting-related news.
Anyhow, I realized back in December that I hadn’t knit something for myself since before my daughter was born. It’s also winter and I’m cold all the time, so I made myself a cowl:
I used the Wham Bam Thank You Lamb pattern by Susan Chang, although my primary inspiration was Ravelry user nysun, who made one in reversible two-color ribbing. After I made my husband his noro-striped Alberta vest last year I’ve been looking for other potential patterns for mixing some of the insane Noro colorways from my yarn stash with solid colors. For this project I chose Noro Silk Garden Chunky in #8, with a ball of very-discontinued Rowan Polar in Combat, which I was utterly convinced was gray until I started knitting with it and realized it’s actually green.
It’s really hard to take a good photo of this project because it looks totally different from every angle. But I love the thing:
Here are my quick and dirty fisherman’s rib knitting instructions for those of you who’d like to try this at home:
Setup: CO an even # of stitches on a circular needle, and then knit a row without joining.
Row one: *Knit 1, Knit 1 Below* in Color #1 (the same color you cast on & set up with).
At the end of the row, don’t turn. Slide your work back to the other end of your circular so you can pick up & start knitting Color #2.
Row two: *Purl 1 Below, Purl* in Color #2. At the end of the row you will have both colors of yarn dangling there and at this point you turn the work.
Row three: *Purl 1 Below, Purl* in Color #1. Slide work without turning.
Row four: *Knit 1, Knit 1 Below* in Color #2. At the end of the row, turn your work.
It seemed complicated when I started out but somewhere in the middle I realized I was able to read the stitches and I didn’t need my notes anymore. I’ve also heard Rumors on the Internets that if you knit this stitch pattern in the round instead of flat you only need two rows, not four.
Purl 1 Below is tricky at first. After frogging my nice yarn like 4 times I had a lightbulb moment and figured out the pattern with some junk yarn. The moral of the story: for the love of gourd, swatch everything.
February 22nd, 2011 at 11:00 pm
LOVE it! And your kid.
February 22nd, 2011 at 11:02 pm
<3