Flagel Knitting Files

It seems cowls have been all the rage in the last couple of years and with any luck will remain a rage through this winter season.  I've finally jumped on the bandwagon and knit several of them this year so I certainly hope that's the case. I made several of the Honey Comb Cowl; it can been seen here .  You've seen two versions of the West Desert Hood here  and  here .  There's been a couple of versions of the False Creek Cowl here .  But I've been busy knitting up a couple of other types of cowls recently. A Flagel-designed cowl started out wanting to grow up to be a scarf, but there wasn't enough yarn to make it an appropriate length. (I so wanted it to be a scarf.)  A short scarf can rather easily turn into a cowl.  (This creation is another of my happy mistakes. I'm going to assume this process is the way many new knitting creations come about.)   The inspiration for this design came from a cowl I saw made up at Baad Anna's earlier this fall.  Th

One of my co-workers is married to Deb, an excellent cook and quilter/crafter as well.  Each year she makes an almond roca butter crunch that keeps all of us in the department smiling throughout December.  It is the talk of the office at this time of year. Additionally, I have benefited from her professional skills in sewing/quilting for several year.  I own and have given as gifts several of her potholders.  Your fingers and thumb go into the cupcake part and the potholder folds so you can more easily grip the hot pan. There's a beautifully quilted square table cover.  It has such a subtle Christmas theme I have left it on my coffee table for most of the year. And last year I got a beautiful beaded iPad bag.  My photo barely shows all the lovely sparkly quilting and beading Deb put on this bag; plus the quilting protects the iPad. This year there were so many gifts I have to bullet point them: a baby blanket for M two small tactile blankets for M a small tra

If you are a knitter, or probably a crafter or maybe any shopper in general, you know this is the time of the year when the chickens do come home to roost (yes, a farm colloquialism) meaning it is time to pay the consequences of your bad decisions.  I'm not sure what chickens have to do with consequences but now is not the time to worry too much about such details. Each year there is a certain amount of planning that takes place where I have high hopes of getting stuff done.  Then reality sets in and even though there's only 23 days to Xmas as I write this, and I do have a day job; I think, sure it is still possible to get everything made, I just have to focus.  In the end things never quite pan out that way.  But I keep thinking this year it might be different. So before I panic, let me write about a class I just took called Two-Handed Colourways.  In it I learned how to knit Fair Isle items .  Go ahead click on the link for a definition, if you like, but here's what