A little Hide & Seek

I finished my Hide & Seek the other day and I've been wearing it pretty much non-stop ever since. We've been having a cold spell so the timing could not be more fortuitous, since it's double lined (as well as really pretty).

Thing is I feel a little guilty about it because my daughter has been pointing at the cowl and saying, somewhat hopefully, 'is that mine?'(She knows full well it is not, it's round my neck after all). I'll shake my head.  Then she will point at my knitting and ask, eyebrows raised, 'one for me?'

I can take a hint so yesterday afternoon I went to the wool shop and I bought this:

'Lovely', 'great colour combinations' are all things you or I might think. A two-year-old? 'They don't match!' she said.

Super Stretchy Cast Off

Having knit more Theolie's than perhaps a sane person should knit, I've had the opportunity to experiment with different cast off/bind off techniques. Theolie is a simple shawl, constructed largely of garter stitch, with a textured/lace border. Knit in alpaca it makes for a gloriously smooshy, squishy, comfortable shawl.

Theolie in Artesano Alpaca 4ply

The trouble with alpaca though, is that it has no memory. In this respect, I sometimes wonder if I am alpaca.

For the shawl pictured above, I worked the cast off as written in the pattern. For my next incarnation in the same yarn I tried various stitch combinations. Mostly I wanted to give structure to the edges whilst still being sufficient stretchy....what I finally came up with was really really stretchy….check out these points!

A second Theolie in Artesano Alpaca 4ply

So how is it done?

Firstly, use a needle one or two sizes larger than the main knitting. I used a needle two sizes larger (i.e. 1mm bigger). Then work the cast off row as follows:

1. K2.
2. Slip these 2sts back to the left needle.
3. K2togtbl.
4. K1.

You now have 2 sts on your right needle again so you can repeat steps 2-4 to the end of the row.

This edging was super stretchy and so I’d definitely recommend it if you’re having trouble getting a stretchy-enough cast off edge.

K2togtbl = knit two stitches together through the back of the loops.

Theolie pattern page on Ravelry