I have been working on a new diversion for you, a simple pair of gauntlets and matching (poppy) cowl to go with your Ella coat or just about any other outfit. Quick to knit, and fun to wear slouchy or more like opera gloves, 1 skein of Shepherd’s Wool will make a pair of gauntlets and 1 skein will make the cowl. If you are making your cowl and gauntlets out of Red Barn Yarn Worsted, 2 skeins will make the cowl and 1 skein will make matching gauntlets.

Before I go any further, I must apologize for not posting sooner about this knit-a-long. Please forgive me. I am at the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival. . . I have a booth here and my dear friend Mary Elliott is helping me. We were up until 2 am working on the booth to make it a sparkling Noni Boutique! Pictures to be posted to FB shortly.

But to the Knit-a-long:  We will begin with the cowl.

The cowl is a simple project. If you can knit and purl, you will be golden. Cast on as written in the Escher’s Oriental Poppy Cowl pattern. You will want to choose a true worsted weight yarn. If you choose a light worsted, you may use more yardage than the recommended yarn–please prepare and make sure you have enough yarn.

The cowl itself is simple to make. Work it flat to the 42″ or desired length. I will talk about grafting it together next Friday. . .

I just got my beautiful REDS colorway poppy cowl back from the fashion show here at the Festival. I have to thank Steven Be for saying lovely lovely things about my work, the Ella coat, The Poppy Cowl, and my brand new New York bag (so new it’s not even on my website yet, but stay tuned. . . talk about an AMAZING ensemble)!

As many of you already know, the pattern for the Poppy Cowl and also for the Kit are up on Ravelry to download. If you’d like a custom kit picked and packaged by me personally, complete with heavy cardstock paper patterns, Shepherd’s Wool in the luscious poppy colors of your dream, complete with a metal Noni label and the Noni-only Nora No. 7 for the cowl itself, let me know.

We’ll check back in next Friday for the next step: grafting the cowl together so it looks flawless.

Come see me in Pittsburgh! Remember to check back for pictures here in this post and on Facebook. . .