Shedir, Shedone

Here is the finished but unblocked Shedir. It's going to need a lot of blocking. I found the Rowan Calmer a bit tricky to work with this pattern -- in fact, compared to my earlier rendition of this pattern in Dolly merino, this one looks downright clumsy and clumpy. I didn't have to block the merino Shedir at all. This one, I'll have to go over stitch by stitch to tease into shape.

But the Rowan Calmer does have one thing over the merino -- the Calmer is way, way, way soft. It feels like water running through your fingers as you knit it. I imagine that would be very soothing to wear against a bare scalp.

















This is how much yarn I had left over from the single skein of Calmer. I include the darning needle for scale. It's not a lot of yarn, and had I not eliminated several rows from the pattern, I probably would have run short. For the record, I eliminated two rounds of the initial ribbing, knitting 7 instead of the recommended 9. I also eliminated rounds 64, 68, 72, 75 and 78, all of which are resting rounds in the crown shaping. I wanted the crown to be more rounded and less conical, which was why I chose to skip basically every other resting round in the pattern. Lucky thing I did!

Overall, I'm happy with the way it turned out, and it was just as much fun the second time around for this pattern. But it doesn't persuade me to try more cotton yarns for textured knitting. For me, at least, the results are better with wool.

Now, I just have to find something vaguely head-shaped to help with the blocking.

And then, it's on to the socks! Woot! Look out DPNs, cuz I'm coming to getcha!