May 2026

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May was kind of a silly month for me. Let me explain. I was planning on knitting a stranded colour-work sweater and I had been planning the design for a long while. By planning, I mean, I had both drafted a couple of patterns and knitted quite a few different swatches. However, my last attempt at knitting a colour-work sweater was a big disappointment and left me feeling like I needed to practice doing a lot of stranded colour-work before I started another challenging project. Last year, I did just that and finished not one, but two hot water bottle covers and all went very well. Last month, I knitted a stranded colour-work beanie and again all went perfect. Both those experiences gave me confidence, but when the day to cast on for my sweater arrived I chickened out and, instead, started a cowl. That was fine. It's a gorgeous pattern and a real pleasure to knit! But... but I felt like I just wasted my time. I definitely need to practice to work colour-work flat (and maybe some colourwork project with long floats, which is where I got in trouble before), but the colour-work in the pattern I used is so simple that I learned absolutely nothing from it. Nothing wrong with the pattern. It's a fabulous pattern, well written, easy and fun to work and the result is gorgeous.

The cowl was a simple and relatively quick knit that left me plenty of time to work on more stuff. I continued my February project, the only other project on my needles at the time, but I also cast on for two extra projects on a whim. One was a summer top, but that was a flop and I ended up frogging it before the end of the month (I'm using the yarn for my June project, let's cross fingers that one will be more successful). The reason I frogged was twofold, one I don't think I had enough yarn, two I had self-drafted the pattern and made a mistake in my attempt at using as little yarn as possible. The challenge of this project was what may turn my June project into another big failure, which is that I have just enough yarn for a top, but I am not sure that is enough for one my size. In order to make it work I need to do two things: keep the body as tight as possible and the neckline as wide as possible. If I succeed I'll get a top that is not too tight, nor too revealing on the neckline or too cropped either. Crossing my fingers (spoiler: I already frogged and restarted my June project twice).

Project data

Pattern: Moonwake Cowl by Andrea Mowry
Yarns: Rosa Pomar Brusca (colours: 3C, 10C, 14C) and Rosa Pomar Vovó (colour: 29).
Needles: 4mm.

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