#needleworkmonday: They Don't All Have to be Masterpieces

Greeting Steemians!

Whew, the days fly by and I realize that it's #needleworkmonday again, and I've got to scramble to get something fun and hopefully inspiring up here in time. So here I am at 5:00 p.m. just starting in. So much credit to you guys who can post daily; I struggle to get 2 posts up a week!

But as I sat down to share what I've been working on, I realized that I've been inadvertently following a theme all week: They Don't All Have to be Masterpieces. It's cool to do the easy, fun knits that you can finish in 4 days. Not everything has to be an ambitious combination of colorwork plus lace, knitted up in laceweight yarn that takes aaaagggees to finish. I like those too, I really do, but there's such pleasure to be found in a pattern consisting entirely of knit and purl stitches, knit up in bulky weight yarn, done in less than a week! (Can you tell most of my recent projects were on the needles for months before completion?) And you know, even if I haven't been scheming and planning my latest Steemit post for several days and here I am whipping it out Monday evening, that's cool too. Hopefully it'll serve as a reminder that the simple pleasures in life are just as meaningful as our great ambitions.

Not exactly the weather this was knit for

This is the (free!) Royal Mile Cowl by Magpie Fibers. I stumbled across it while idly searching through Ravelry one day, looking for inspiration for one of the various skeins of yarn I have stashed away. I just happened to have yarn that reminded me of the yarn in the photo, which I thought was beautiful, so I went for it. Very happy with the results--though I have a question for you knitters out there: what's your go-to cast off for a stretchy knit? It didn't occur to me until finishing this that although I know several different ways for casting on, I always cast off in the same, inelastic way. Advice please!

Photo from Magpie Fibers site

It almost feels like free knitting when you've forgotten how much you paid for the yarn in the first place! This was my first time knitting with alpaca, which is by far the softest and most luxurious yarn I've knit up. I suspect it'll need quite a bit of coddling when it comes to laundering. Anyone have experience washing alpaca wool?

So that's it for today. When grabbing the Royal Mile pattern, I was quite taken with the Salt Point Cowl too. So maybe you'll be seeing that up here on some future Monday. Until then, I leave you with one last reminder that They Don't All Have to be Masterpieces (knitting photography included!)

I'll weave those ends in sooner or later


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