Summer Knitting – Quick Cowl/Gaiter/Neck Warmer

It probably will not have escaped you that my interest in knitting seems to have faltered a bit during my sojourn in Canada. I have noticed it too. Pondering this, I was curious to find out whether my inclination to knit might reappear upon my return to the UK. So, I packed two travel knitting projects to take with me to the UK and, strangely enough, my interest in knitting did return while I was there.

Actually, it started on the plane somewhere over the Atlantic. In the last hours of my flight, I found myself reaching for my knitting and my i-Pod. I started to work on the back of a small toddler vest, which I will share when the project is finished and dispatched to its gift recipient in the UK.

However, it really started when I was back in London and over my jetlag. I found myself waiting to catch a train. I boarded, sat down and before I had realised what I was doing, my project bag was out, neatly clipped to the seat in front of me and I was thumbing over an error that I had made on a halted sport-weight hat project in Vancouver. I continued to work on it whenever I was travelling and during my return flight to Vancouver. Again, I will share this project when it is finished as I still have the crown to complete.

Then, during a visit to my mother in Hereford, I helped out at her gallery during a 3 day yarn sale. As it happened, there were some lonely looking balls in a box that looked like they were being overlooked. As two balls had lost their labels, I asked my mother if I could use them to whip up a little something to give people a project idea for the yarn. This was the result:

A little cowl, gaiter or neck warmer (as you prefer) that was inspired by the Knit.1 Gaiters that I made a year or so ago.

Project Statistics

Yarn: 2 Balls of Adriafil Charme
Duration to Knit: 3 hours or so (by a medium-slow knitter)
Worked: The Small Gallery, Hereford
Pattern: My own but inspired by a 2007 Knit.1 Cabled Cowl (Gaiter)

A very efficient knit as this was all the yarn that I had left over at the end:

It is quite a funky little number. Although the yarn does not stand out when you walk into my mother's gallery (it is tricky for it to compete with all the lovely hand-dyes that she stocks), it was perfect for this project. It gave the cable good definition plus it was soft and extremely cosy. In fact, I could wear it against my skin – a small miracle!

I was almost sad to leave it on display in my mother's gallery window. Although I did write up the pattern for my mother so I guess that I could make another one! Except...

...I am home again now and my interest seems to be leaching quietly away again. I am a bit worried about it as I enjoyed my knitting over the summer. I have even been avoiding my local knit night over the last few weeks. I am trying to hold onto my interest long enough to finish the hat and the toddler vest but at this rate? I think that it is going to be a stretch.

My observation is that public transport and progress on my projects seem to be very strongly linked. You know how there are results knitters (knit to obtain the finished object) and process knitters (knit for the love of doing it)? Well, I think that I might be a 'situational knitter'.

Without a commute, my knitting rarely makes it out of its project bag. My head doesn't seem to be able to conscience sitting and knitting as a standalone activity in its own right. Not at home and not at the studio either (interestingly enough). While I can just about spin, I have never been able to knit and watch TV successfully. I cannot do it in just the same way that I cannot iron clothes and watch TV at the same time either.

As a result, unless I can find a way to overcome this problem (open to ideas that do not involve me setting up camp on the new Canada Line train carriage for two hours each day), it might be the case that knitting may only make an occasional appearance on this blog until I have obtained residency status and I am allowed to work in Canada.

Assuming no problems, I am hoping that this will only take another 3-5 months and that I will be able to find a job here. Clearly, from a knitting perspective, I have my fingers crossed that I will be able to find a role in a location that gives me a logical Public Transport commute!