I'm Back! And Why

 I'm back to blogging.  Why?  Well, I realized as I was walking home yesterday that I still think of things like I have a blog.  All these years later.  So I thought I should be blogging again.  Also, I feel like there are things I want to say that I really can't say out loud.  Or maybe I just need to organize them like this.  Lots and lots of stuff has happened in the intervening decade (!).  We'll try to catch up in the next little bit.  But since this was a knitting blog, some knitting.  

Last night I started a cowl for my bff Michelle, since (I think) it's a big birthday for her in a month or so.  I made her a Decisiveness Scoop (picture later, but the color is named "Pumpkin") and I had gotten some Knit Picks Chroma (in the colorway "Sedona") for the cowl.  Michelle is a red head, these are her colors.  I thought and thought about what pattern to use in the cowl.  I knew I wanted the colors to stripe in chunks around the cowl, not on top of each other, so I knew I was going to knit flat and kitchener the ends together.  Here's my swatch:

Notice my YOs.  I swatched (since Chroma is a worsted weight) with a 7, 8, and 9 needle.  The YOs mark the transition of the needles.  My personal preference is for a reversible fabric for cowls (because the inside does show), so this is a 1x1 rib.  I know.  But I wanted something simple, and yesterday it just hit me that 1x1 that looks like stockinette on both sides was what I wanted to show off the color gradations.  But wait, the craziness doesn't end there (not at all) because the other project I have on the needles is this:

That's Cumberland Gap.  And I made it extra wide too.  Miles of 1x1 rib (it's reversible too) with the occasional interminable row of cabling.  This is a gift for another fabulous friend, Traci (we've been friends since Junior High).  I made no promise of when it would be done, I've been working on it for months now and I'm not even half way.