My Kind of Home Decor

I had been dodging it all week: my too-short Sallah Cowl, in its net-like beauty, sat on the coffee table all week. I knew it was going to be too short, and I was too annoyed with myself to come up with a solution. It would have been nice it the problem had solved itself, but alas, this was the sort of problem that I was going to have to wade through, unless I wanted to waste all that time and yarn.

I picked it up the other night and picked up a bunch of stitches along one of the edges, and then continued using the same stitch pattern until I was nearly out of yarn.

I didn't bind off. Instead, I sewed the opposite edge onto the unbound edge, which seemed to preserve some elasticity, even if it made for a row of large, eyelet-like holes:

This made for an extra panel of fabric to work with, which gave me a couple of extra inches of circumference. I began to hope that I would actually be able to get my head through.

And then, I wove in the stray ends and soaked it. While it soaked, I cast my eyes around for an idea of how I could stretch this thing hard so that it would block out large enough to fit. That's when my eyes lit on my umbrella swift. A few minutes later, I had an interesting lampshade sitting next to my dining table.

And man, it worked. I love it. That extra panel with the stitches moving in a different direction really makes it interesting to me. I wore it out this afternoon to sit down in the sunshine at the marina... it was perfect for the wee bit of chill in the springtime breeze.

It's amazing what a bit of blocking will do. I even went so far as to block my Slipstream Hat a few days ago, and I like it way better now than I did.

And now, we'll break for my obligatory Sunday baking shot (mmmm blueberry scones)...

And a loaf of Dutch oven rye bread:

In the meantime, since my swift was in use as a blocking agent, I pulled out a ball of yarn that didn't need winding, and started working on my next project: a cowl that I fully admit I am copying pretty much exactly from someone I follow on Google+. +Casey L is so good at matching patterns to yarns, and I regularly peruse her posts to see what new beauty she has concocted. As soon as I saw her version of Moogly's Artfully Simple Infinity Scarf, I knew I had to make it... especially since I had the exact same colourway of Katia Jaipur sitting in my stash. It doesn't look like much at the moment, but I'm looking forward to seeing how mine turns out.

Since it's worked in the round, it's going to be one big loop when it's finished. I'm thinking that the swift might work to block it, if it's not too large. I could get used to seeing these kinds of lampshades around the house...

... that'd be my kind of home decor!