Finished! Meditate cowl for Stephanie

My cousin Stephanie's birthday was a few weeks ago. For a while I was knitting her a pair of socks every year, even though wool socks are about the last thing anyone wants to wear in summer in Kansas. Then last year I stepped it up a bit and made her a sweater to celebrate not only her birthday but the completion of her PhD in American Studies.

This year I started a pair of socks for her, but I was afraid they were coming out a little tight. I am LOATH to reknit socks if they'll fit somebody so I finished them up and squirreled them away in my own sock drawer (hopefully I'll get FO pics of those eventually, as they are neon pink and very fun, but I'm pretty lazy about photographing plain socks) and started hunting through my stash for more sock yarn.

When I knit socks for Stephanie, I like them to be crazy and bright. Who need dignified socks? Alas, none of the yarn I had readily available was speaking to me as being just right for her. Sure, I could have used that as an excuse to shopping for more, but that wasn't particularly appealing either. 

In my search, I came across a large wound skein of double gradient merino/silk fingering weight I picked up at Knit Circus last summer (they have a B&M store here in Madison, yo, and it is really best if I go in there with CASH ONLY!!) and it hit me: this would be a gorgeous scarf. And the colors are really perfect for Stephanie.

Before I even started browsing on Ravelry, I knew what pattern to use: the Meditate Cowl by Elizabeth Doherty (of Blue Bee Studio).

It really is quite meditative to knit. The pattern is simple enough to memorize easily and works for a variety of yarn amounts. You just keep going until there is a little bit left to finish up the i-cord bind off at the end.

Then you sew on some buttons and voila! You have a scarf or a cowl, however you choose to wear it.

My photos are kinda boring because I was a little late mailing it off and had to snap them quick before mailing the package.

Anya made her a coaster using a variety of embroidery stitches on my sewing machine.

This is kind of what the skein looked like before it was knit. 

I'm not sure if I have a whole lot else to say about this one. It was such a nice knit. Soothing, easy, repetitive, take-anywhere, and I think the end result is really quite sophisticated and unfussy, much like Stephanie. She might get neon orange socks from me next year, but for this birthday, I went the classier route.