Warm n Cozy!

That's right! After being on needles for over a year, I'm finally done! There she is, draped over a bush - looks like rolling green hills, no?

Pattern: Cozy from Knitty
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease, in Loden, 4 skeins
Finished Dimensions: 60 inches x 25 inches (yes, the dimensions are different from the pattern)
Needle Size: US 9

Comments: yeah, I tweaked the pattern, wanting something wider than 19 inches, I cast on a bunch of extra stitches, unfortunately, I can't remember just how many extra I cast on and I don't have Cozy with me, so I can't count the bound off stitches...I also did 5 rows of garter stitch at the beginning and end rather than the 3 called for in the pattern....otherwise I followed the pattern faithfully ;)

From the beginning, Cozy and I seemed to be doomed to a love-hate relationship. She was my first lace pattern, and caused me no end of frustration, especially since that was before I learned about lifelines and placing strategic stitch markers to mark groupings of pattern repeats. I believe she was frogged something on the order of four or five times - thank goodness the Wool Ease stood up to the abuse. After languishing on the side as I moved onto other knitting, I decided I probably ought to put her out of her misery and either frog her and reclaim the yarn or finish her. As you can see, I decided to finish, though with the compromise of using only 4 skeins of yarn rather than the originally planned 5 skeins. I'm pleased with the result - she's long enough to wrap around me, and the lace pattern really wasn't as troublesome as I had remembered it being...I guess that's what happens when you work on other lace projects in the interim :)

For those of you who might be wondering, blocking a yarn such as Wool Ease is indeed possible - I went for a full wet block, drowning Cozy in the sink overnight, then staking her out with the use of my welding rods-turned blocking wires (1/16" aluminum tig rods). The use of wires helped keep the edges straight with a minimum number of pins. The rods I have, unfortunately, are prone to bending, and may be a little soft for this use, but they seemed to work fine and the price couldn't be beat. For good measure, I did do a quick pass over her with an iron on low heat while she was still damp - it didn't crush the knitting too badly, and it seemed to ensure that the blocked dimensions didn't spring back once unpinned.

While I am pleased at the result, I can't say I'll be knitting another cozy any time soon - I haven't the attention span for large rectangles....which doesn't bode well for the aran throw I was dreaming of :)