Don't scowl at my cowl

Last year I made a cowl that was a bit too restrained, it wasn’t cowly enough. This year, armed with a chunky wool blend in a lovely peacock-teal shade and my size 11 needles, I set out to fulfill my need for a cozy (easy to make) neckwarmer. It was a success, even my fashionable NYC sister (who would declare she is not fashionable) wants one. I am making her one right now.

Mermaid Cowl- Super easy

I cast on 29 stitches (you need to use a multiple of 6 stitches plus 5 to do the chevron pattern)

1^st row (right side) K5,[ p1, k5] to end

2^nd row K1, [p3, k3] to last 4 stitches, p3, k1

3^rd row P2, [k1, p2] to end

4^th row P1, [k3, p3] to last 4 stitches, k3, p1

5^th K2, [p1, k5] to last 3 stitches, p1, k2

6^th row Purl to end

Repeat these 6 rows until it is the length you desire. Bind off and use a crochet hook to stitch up the seam. 

I love this painting

By Chelsea James
In fact, I love all of her paintings and wish I could buy one or even a print. Someday. The mistiness of this one, and the fact that it is an aerial view of a rural landscape that is abstracted if you just glance at it without a thought, really attracts me.  

Ernst Heackel

 I recently discovered Ernst Heackel's amazing scientific drawings. I 

have long been a fan of botanical/scientific drawings but hadn't heard of Heackel. Now I have to get my hands on his book, Art Forms in Nature. Yikes. All of the above images are from that book, I believe. I ran into his name while working on a science lesson plan for one of my classes. He is the author of the term," Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny. Which informed much of our beliefs about evolution but not in the literal sense that he intended it. Basically it's modern iteration is that many developments take place during ontogeny (a species' development) that repeat or parallel it's species evolutionary development 

( phylogeny). Okay I am no scientist. That is my wild stab at understanding this... Anyway, his artwork is gorgeous. 

cowl-love

One of my goals, yeah right, over break was to knit a cowl. I bought some beautifully variegated emerald green yarn and knit what is more like a snood. It is soft and pretty but it is not at all what I originally wanted to knit. I did it rather quickly. Below is what I originally wanted and still want. But now I can't really validate buying more expensive yarn and school is about to begin. So the end of my wealth of extra time is nigh. Whine whine.

Below is the exquisite Herringbone Cowl at purl bee which I discovered on Poppy talk, fast becoming one of my favorite blogs, which means not so much since I heart a dozen blogs...oh well.


I think one of the things I need to work on is being patient and focusing on achieving what I really want without taking shortcuts because I inevitably regret them.

I am starting a new book. That is something I have time for. And it is not Winter's Bone, I can't handle that much melancholy right now. I am reading Amy and Isabelle- Elizabeth Strout. Which I certainly hope is less melancholy. I will let you know. Maggie B. loved it and she has wonderful taste in literature. And Elizabeth Strout wrote the Pulitzer winning Olive Kitteredge, which I loved.

Can you tell I am feeling blue? Lately that has been my default emotion. But to cheer me up, and you too should you need it.... Masterpiece Theatre has a brand new miniseries premiering this very evening!!!! Downtown Abbey


It has gotten some good reviews and should be very helpful to me on the next few cold Sunday evenings. Oh and just in case you don't have television, this is something you can watch online on the Masterpiece website, how utterly convenient (said with a British accent of course).