Queen of ice

- February 16, 2011

When my mom asked my to knit a cowl for one of her girlfriends, who will be celebrating her birthday next weekend, and she tried to explain to me what she would like, I was a bit at a loss... She said her friend had admired a woman in a restaurant wearing something soft and squishy, light and white and with cables. Well, light, squishy and cables don't really go together in my mind, if I thing of light and squishy, I think mohair, lace knitting, and the odd bead here and there.
So, just on the off-chance that it would also be a good choice, I started knitting Ice Queen. It was a great knit, even though the beads are a story of their own. I bought the beads on the Internet, and, as before when I did that, I managed to buy beads with the tiniest of holes, just big enough for the yarn to pass through - but no way would I be able to use a crochet hook to get them on. As I didn't want to fiddle with metal wire (I did consider it for about two seconds), I decided to thread them. All 300 of them. It took me an evening and lots of sighing and watching TV, but when it was done, it was just a case of just moving them along and knitting them.

The cowl came with me to the hospital, but because of the beads (and as I realized there, at around 3AM, that I didn't have enough beads to finish the 16 repeats...), it stayed in my bag and I knit some India hats (more about that in the post tomorrow...). As soon as we got home again, I ordered beads, and then two days later, got back to knitting.
The pattern is lovely, and even the picot cast-off was not as complicated as I thought it would be. I love the little twists that are created just before the picots, and will definitely use that technique again in the future.
Before I handed over this handful of squishy, soft goodness to my mom - who loved it and said her friend would love it too - she reminded me to take some pictures for my blog and for Ravelry ;) She knows me too well, haha...