For the first time in a looong time I completed a project just for me.
Super bulky yarn is tough to find. Great super bulky yarn is incredibly tough to find. Harder still, huge needles. It’s been nearly impossible to locate size 17+ needles on various cable lengths outside of a specialty shop, and I’ve yet to locate a great local one of those. My mom is a fellow knitter (along with quilter, cross stitcher, sewer, and more) and, as always, came through with these absolutely awesome materials for me.
The yarn was a Christmas gift but I’ve been sitting on it for a bit though while trying to locate needles. I’m partial to wood and I couldn’t find anything longer than 32″ without going specialty or online, so the yarn has been safely tucked away until I had the perfect set.
She picked up these Jenkins made needles for me and they’re just so so good. I chatted with her while she browsed through the store and texted over a recent bowl pic which arrived while she was in line to check out. She tells me the ladies had lovely things to say about the bowl, which just pumps me up even further for Milkshed happenings! Thanks for your support, kind strangers.
You can see that the yarn already has this fantastic variation to it, so I knew I wanted to stick with something that would have a lot of texture. The seed stitch is absurdly simple and one of the first I learned, but I’ve always been drawn to the little nubs and dense fabric it creates.
When doing seed stitch in the round, just remember to cast on an odd number of stitches. From there, join and make sure to not twist your stitches, then knit one, purl one until you’ve reached the desired length. You can certainly place a marker, but I rarely use them.
There’s no real counting beyond ensuring that you’re always knitting a purl and purling a knit. If you accidentally drop or combine a stitch, everything can shift one and you’ll be creating a 1×1 ribbed cowl instead. If you keep a casual eye on your stitches, it’s easy to blow through a seed stitch cowl in one evening or so, especially when working with materials this oversized.
The final cowl is just what I’d hoped for – the perfect size for single or double wrap, and large enough to serve as an emergency hood.
In the pictures above you can also see a Milkshed tray holding the yarn. I’ve been experimenting with patterns for a “tray” version of both the medium and large bowl. The same size, but with shorter walls, I use them for corralling jewelry on a dresser or change on my desk. One always lives on a table by the couch to keep a yarn ball away from kitty paws and hold a rogue needle or two. The walls here need some adjustment, but a final version should be up in the store with everything else soon.
On a final Milkshed note, I took the ultimate leap and placed a large(ish) supply order. I’m sure I’ll eventually make products to order, but for now I want to have a small inventory on hand to get things out to people as quickly as possible. I’ve slowly been trickling out photos to friends and family, taking care to walk the line between sharing what I’ve got going on and just plain annoying them. I’m hesitant to spam my facebook or twitter buddies, but so far the response has been nothing but lovely. For anyone following me on instagram, yeah I can’t even pretend to not be bombarding you. I post knit shit ALL THE TIME.
milkshed 