My swap

Viv and I had a swap in August. Yikes! Talk about taking your sweet time to blog about it :).


She sent me some lovely things. Officially for the swap I was going to knit something for her and she was going to send some of her adorable hand sewn shoes from my son.

Aren't they great? They have gotten a ton of use. He walks around the house holding them up saying "shoes, shoes" to anyone who will listen and hopefully put them on his little feet.

As a bonus gift, because she didn't want anyone to feel left out, she also sent this beautiful and very useful roll of colored pencils for my daugher. So generous!! I just have to say that she is too talented, too generous, and I am very grateful for her gifts.

For my portion of the swap I have to confess I was riddled with indecision. Do any of you ever suffer from gift anxiety? A little known illness that afflicts many. It can strike at any time and to anyone. Usually a person is struck with the idea to give a gift. Maybe a little knit something. They peruse magazines and websites. Searching and searching for "just the right" pattern and yarn for the project. The casual perusing turns to anxiety laden page turning and mouse clicking as the person realizes they aren't quite sure if this one or that one will do. The once lovely idea of giving a gift to someone turns from pleasure to terror. What to do? A hat? What if they don't really wear hats? A cowl maybe, but then some people don't enjoy things around their throat. How about mittens? Are they allergic to wool? Now they are up against a looming deadline and don't have anything yet!

As you can see I clearly suffer from this illness :) I finally bit the bullet and bought some luscious yarn from Debbie Bliss, her alpaca silk aran to be precise, and decided on a cowl and a headband/ear warmer for Viv.

This was a quick knit and I loved knitting it. I got the pattern from One Skein Wonders.

It is cast on with a provisional cast-on (my first time) and then you use kitchener stitch to bind off and connect it.

Here is the cowl and I loved it so much I ordered up some more yarn and knit one for myself.

The pattern can be raveled here.

The thing I liked it about this particular cowl is the shaping. As it gets longer there are increases so it is not too snug but snug enough under the chin and longer at the bottom so it sits beautifully on your shoulders.

All in all I loved doing the swap and hopefully someday I can relax a bit more when giving a gift.