Rivendell Cowl

The parade of knitted objects from my blog-sabbatical continues...

One of the little indulgences that I allowed myself during the Christmas holiday was to knit Susan Pandorf's Rivendell cowl with the luxury yarn specified in the pattern. Muse from Twisted Fiber Art is a sport-weight blend of 50% merino wool and 50% silk, with a dreamy hand and a not-so-subtle sheen. I ordered a custom version of the long-striping "Evolution" colorway called Vintage. This colorway normally shifts from pale gray-green to burgundy and then to pink, but I asked for more of the dark wine color than usual, and for a tad less yellow in the green. What emerged was a lovely mixture of warm gray and burgundy, shading into pale pink. I had a devil of a time getting the colors to show up accurately in digital pictures, but the photo of the yarn (above right) is a fairly good approximation.

The pattern is another one of Susan's exquisite Tolkien-inspired lace designs, featuring interlocking archways, reminiscent of Elven architecture as shown in the LOTR movies, with twisted stitches to lend texture and depth to the fabric. It was a very easy knit that took only a few days, a brief span made all the more satisfying and enjoyable by the gradually shifting colors. I got to teach myself the left-handed version of Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Slip-Knot Cast-On, and could have kept knitting more or less indefinitely. But I stopped short of using up the entire skein, because I decided not to place the very palest shade of baby pink next to my face.

The knitted object proved even more difficult to photograph than the skein of yarn, but here are my two best shots, one taken part way through the knitting and the other during blocking. As always, click on either photo to see a larger version. But note that the finished object has less magenta in it and more petal pink than the photo shows. The actual colors are more like what you see in the skein of yarn. At any rate, I wear this cowl often, usually with a gray turtleneck underneath. It adds a marvelous splash of color that helps to cheer me up on those dreary winter days when I have to head into work and try to inspire my students.