Hip to be square

I finished knitting the Albers Cowl pieces just before our big trip, but seaming came later. Finally, it is done! I used all 7 colors of my Miss Babs Yummy Toes kit in this scheme:

S1 made that all work in Illustrator for me – nice, eh?

Here are the pieces before seaming. The colors seem washed out in this photo. Sometimes grey rock is the perfect neutral background, and sometimes it isn’t. Here, it didn’t work. I always pull out my copy of Sally Melville’s The Knit Stitch when seaming. She has the clearest directions for seaming ridge to ridge, ridge to stitch, or stitch to stitch.

I really enjoyed knitting this. I’ve since spent more time perusing the finished Albers Cowls in Ravelry. Some people are knitting FOUR squares so that the resulting loop can be doubled around the neck. I’m interested in this and am considering adding a fourth square to mine. I would only have to pull out one seam. I definitely have enough yarn left. I didn’t weigh my mini-skeins before beginning, but they were labeled 1.3 oz, which is about 37 grams. I still have:

• Impatiens (purple) - 14 g
• Pewter (dark gray) - 10 g
• Provence (light gray) - 16 g
• Ghoulish (green) - 13 g
• Blackwatch (light teal) - 18 g
• Rain Forest (medium teal) - 25 g
• Coos Bay (dark teal) - 7 g

I also noticed a couple of Albers square blankets in Ravelry. Ooooooooo! I think someday I’ll make a blanket out of leftover sock yarn, but I haven’t yet settled on a pattern or scheme. Check these out: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/inknittingnews/albers-cowl-2 and http://www.ravelry.com/projects/KnittingJoy/albers-cowl. The only thing would be that I’d have to restrict myself to solid and semi-solid yarns. Not all my sock yarn leftovers fit that description.

I’m pleased with this project and look forward to this colorful addition to my fall wardrobe. I tend to wear a lot of solid colors, and this is sure to add a little zing to an otherwise plain shirt.