Learning to Knit Part II - Chunky Cowl Scarf

They call this the teaser shot

I've mentioned that, with the encouragement of some lovely friends, I've opted to take up knitting in 2013 and shared a few of my less-than-beautiful practice runs from the past few weeks. With nothing but time on my hands, I was able to quickly work through some old yarn and in no time found myself tucked away in the back corner of my nearest Michael's craft supply store surrounded by glorious skeins of plush wool in the most beautiful colours imaginable. After settling on a slate blue hue (officially called "denim") I grabbed two skeins for seven dollars each and returned home to search for my first official knitting project. 

Do you have any idea how many knitting patterns are online? Likely a comparable figure to the number of recipes, DIY tutorial, or pieces of celebrity gossip floating around out there right now. As a result, deciding what to knit, while also struggling from indecisiveness, was next to impossible. However, as I already knew I wanted to make a warm, chunky, cowl scarf I narrowed my options down, slightly. 

Not yet knowing how to knit "in the round", an essential skill for making anything circular, think toques, mittens, socks, or cowl scarves, I refused to give up on the idea of a stunning slate-blue cowl scarf and set out to find a way around my knitting in the round dilemma, which led me to the wonderful and glorious fisherman's rib stitch. 

Hallelujah! 

Using this incredibly-chunky-and-amazingly-awesome stitch, I simply knit one straight scarf and then stitched the ends together after casting off. Is this the correct way to make a cowl? Not really. Did it work anyway? Heck yes. Would I do it again? Try and stop me!

Just look at those lovely ribs!

Isn't that colour amazing?

The Fisherman's Rib really is a plushy soft stitch and it works wonderfully here with Wool Ease Thick & Quick yarn to create this chunky look. For a great tutorial on this stitch and many more check out Fluff and Fuzz, there are also some really helpful videos on youtube that helped me figure out how to "knit the stitch below" (after struggling for an hour or so - I'm very stubborn).

With this success under my belt I can't wait to start my next project - as soon as I can secure some Michael's coupons and buy more yarn!

*Note - we have a lovely yarn store downtown that I have yet to visit, I'm afraid it won't be good for my bank account and am instead awaiting a birthday gift certificate before venturing inside.