Once upon a time, I said I would knit three cowls...

A couple weeks ago, I was asked to knit 3 bear-eared hooded scarf and hat combos.  They were just darling in the picture.  I said, "Yes."  {Note to self:  In the future, before saying "yes" - read the pattern in its entirety first.}


If you don't have a mug of hot chocolate or a cup of coffee...go and pour yourself one before you read the remainder of my knitting tale.  It's good.   Trust me.


Sooo when you purchase a pattern from Ravelry (an amazing crocheting and knitting website that I recently discovered), you are not allowed to read the pattern before purchasing it.  Kinda rude.  I mean, even Barnes & Noble, let's you take a sneak peak inside their books. 


With more knitting confidence than necessary, I clicked "purchase" and was then the proud owner of the Burton Bear Cowl pattern. 


My first heart palpitation came when I read that the perimeter of the hood is to be crocheted.  I don't crochet...YET.  I'd love to learn to crochet, but I have not yet mastered this yarn art.  My dear grandma tried to teach me to chain.  Pretty sure that when she got to Heaven, the Lord gave her extra jewels in her crown for attempting to teach me the fine art of crocheting.  I didn't get it.  I cannot make a chain even though I recall her mentioning that it was really easy.  Ummmm...not for me.  In college, my roommate Tanya sent me a I Taught Myself to Crochet book complete with the necessary tools to begin my crocheting career.  I should tell you - even after reading the book, I did NOT, infact, teach myself to crochet.  A couple months ago, I met my friend Stephanie for a crocheting lesson.  Yeah - I didn't get it then either.  I did get to enjoy some girl time and coffee so it was totally win-win. 


After telling myself that I have a college degree and am perfectly capable of learning crocheting, my heart rhythm returned to normal...until further down the pattern when I read the ears are also crocheted.  What is this nonsense?  Mixing knitting AND crocheting? 


Again - I told myself, "These hats will be lovely and Kathy's girls will look darling.  You have a college degree and you knit.  Surely, you can learn to crochet 6 ears total and around the perimeter of the hood."


I purchased 6 skeins of yarn - 2 per cowl.  Which by the way - Wool-Ease Thick & Quick Yarn is quite tricky to track down in the greater Rockford area.  I had to hit 3 separate stores to find matching dye lots. 


Attempt #1
I was so naïve with this first cowl.  I began the pattern with the three purled rows - these were delightful and made a softer edge.  Then came the 23 knitted rounds.  Round-and-round the needles I went...laughing and listening to "While You Were Sleeping" - I love that chick flick and it's the perfect one to listen too...as I have watched it fourteen gazillion times.  After all the rounds of knitting, you are supposed to turn the hood inside out and knit row 1 and then flip it right-side-to to knit row 2 and you repeat these flipping shenanigans (which does sound slightly naughty - however I really had to keep flipping the project...inside out and right-side-to) for several rows...which would've been lovely and worked well HAD I KNOWN THE FLIPPING BEGAN WITH ROW 1.  I didn't realize this until row 2 when I looked and saw a giant (all the way around the hood) ridge.  No worries.  I was just 28 rows...and BAM - a mistake.  So I pulled the yarn off the needles and promptly took a pen and marked up the pattern.  I put next to Row 1 "TURN INSIDE OUT!!!"  {Later I highlighted this note!}  No yarn was compromised during Attempt #1.


Attempt #2
The following day, I casted on the appropriate number of stitched.  I purled and then I knitted and then I flipped and knitted/purled...  During the flipping session, I thought (KEY WORD:  THOUGHT!) the pattern said that the entire piece was supposed to be 12.5 inches.  I continued the flipping-knitting-purling until the cowl measured 12.5 inches. Every couple of rows, I would look at the hole opening for the child's face and would think, Do those girls have that small of heads???  {Note to self:  If something seems wrong, stop what you are doing and consult another knitter and / or get professional knitting help!}   I, then, in my naivety did not bother to re-read the pattern.  Nope, I casted-off the needles and looked at my supposedly finished project.  I must digress...


There's a PIN on Pinterest that is an adorable cat wearing a hooded shark hat.  The cat is sitting atop one of those robotic vacuum cleaners.  It's hysterical.


Sooo I take the "finished" cowl and I attempt to sew up the top seam (that will close the top of the hat before you add the ears).  Apparently I do not know what "sew seams with a blanket stitch" mean because the cowl ended up with a ripple similar to a giant shark fin.  And then I noticed the head opening was REALLY SMALL....smallish, like maybe it would be great if I wanted to use Celia to re-create the shark-vacuum PIN.


This 2nd attempt was an epic fail...as once you cast-off, it binds the yarn and you cannot rip out what you did wrong.  Period.  And into the trash went 1.25 skeins of fabulous yarn...which it turns out that since I didn't knit the cowl completely, I'm left with 3/4 of a skein of fun yarn. 


Attempt #3
By this point, it's been about 5 days...in between Attempts 2 and 3, I have taken a break from knitting and read an entire fluff read and I managed to convince myself REPEATEDLY to not give up on my beloved hobby of knitting.  Oh and I may have consumed 4-too-many cups of coffee and laughed myself silly.


Once I was caffeinated and in a better place {read: talked to Jesus extensively about this troublesome project...begging for knitting wisdom}, I picked up just the pattern and read it thrice...and this would be when I realized the 2nd error of my way - the hood part should measure 12.5 inches.  Not the entire project.  Just the hood.  PRAISE JESUS -- it was like a light shown down from Heaven and my knitting eyes were opened.  I could almost hear the Hallelujah chorus.  Not the shortened one either - I mean the full 3 hours Mormon Tabernacle Choir...and they were wearing robes. 


Attempt #3 went without any hitch.  I purled and then knitted and then did the flipping thing and made sure that just the HOOD measured 12.5 inches.


Attempt #4 - same as #3.


After #4, I realized that I was out of yarn soooo I headed back to my favorite little fabric store on IL Route 173 - Hancock Fabrics only to find they did not have anymore Charcoal Wool-Ease.  No worries...I drove to their E. State Street store.  They had Charcoal - however the dye lots didn't match.  Due to my nervousness and Attempts 1-3, I did not want to take a chance.  I headed to ALL the other craft stores in the greater Rockford area only to discovered I apparently had rid the entire area of Charcoal Wool-Ease.  {Sigh.}


Thankfully this past Tuesday, I met my cousin in Chicago for lunch...and on my way home, I remembered my yarn situation.  A quick stop at JoAnn's on Randall Road and I had THE LAST 2 SKEINS IN THE STORE!!!!!!!!!!!  Seriously - this yarn is amazing, but why isn't there any left???  (Aside from my knitting shenanigans....are people just that smitten with Wool-Ease?  I am...but still...)


Attempt #5 went smashingly well and is done.


I'm not done-done with these cowls...I'm done as far as I can go without professional help.  Knitting professional help...lest you think I need for-real professional help...which maybe I will when it's all said and done.


Today I scheduled my one-hour lesson with the fab gals at Knit One Purl Two.  I told the owner my woes of crocheting around the perimeter and the blanket stitch at the top.  She said it wasn't any trouble at all and we set it up for next Saturday (November 8th).  WHICH MEANS....IN A LITTLE OVER A WEEK, I COULD BE BURTON BEAR COWL - FREE.  I will miss these cute hats.  I love the yarn.  The texture is soft and warm but not scratchy like wool.  The yarn wrapper says they can be machine washed and even machine dried but I don't think this should be chanced. 


I wanted to blog about this because re-telling it is therapeutic and if I ever knit these again, I want a post to remind me of what not to do.