FO: Steam Age Thermis

I have developed an affection for cowls.  Part of the reason, I believe, is that unlike sweater sleeves, mitts, or socks, they do not come in pairs.  I bought this skein of Madeline Tosh Vintage at Yarn Paradise back in October and spent the rest of the afternoon on my dad's hospital bed trying to find the perfect pattern on my phone.  I burned through the entire battery, but I did decide on Thermis by Kris Knits.

Side note: I did not use a filter or anything on this picture.  The sun just happened to peak out at just the right time and create such a cool effect.

This is an awesome final product and really shows off the verigation in the yarn nicely.  I really enjoyed working with Madeline Tosh and one day when I have that kind of money I totally want to make a sweater with it.  Possibly even in this color.  I picked the yarn because A) I liked all the color changes and B) it goes really well with my winter coat.

The buttons were an impulse buy that I made last month while playing on Etsy.  They come from Worldknits & Handspun, who sells a lot of different products, including buttons from places other than the US.  These came from Russia and were just too nice to pass up.  The purchase of these, plus another set and shipping was still about the same cost as a few sets of not as eclectic buttons at the craft shop, so they do make for a really good buy.

Parts of this pattern do not make sense, specifically the button hole parts.  The patterning does not quite match up to the written instructions, and the button hole row includes one too many stitches for the section.  I fixed this for myself by removing the extra stitch, but I know that if I had decided to knit this pattern at this time last year I probably would have spent a lot longer looking for a solution.  I did check the pattern page on Ravelry, and not only is there no errata, but there are comments over a year old asking about this line in the directions to which there has been no reply.  This was hugely disappointing because this is a pay-for pattern, so one would expect that either the directions be fixed in the pattern or that the designer would address this herself.  Obviously this is a small error that almost two thousand knitters have found a way to deal with, but it was disappointing to see when I had heard such great things about the pattern.  The pattern itself was beautifully put together, and I still love the end result, which is a gorgeous cowl for those hoped for cold mornings to come.

As part of the finishing I learned how to do Elizabeth Zimmermann's sewn bind off, which may be more sadistic than the kitchener stitch, but not as much fun.  It took me two and a half episodes of Grimm on tivo to get through, but the end result is quite lovely.