FO – Holy cow(l) – DONNAROSSA

As part of the Finished Object- friday I present you today the quickest knitted garment in my life so far: my first experience in arm-knitting a cowl.

Through the blog Gemachtmitliebe.de I discovered the Supercraft kits. Supercraft is a company who sends DIY stuff to you at home. They make lovely parcels filled with stuff, themed for each season. The kits are always a surprise, you don’t know what’s inside in advance. It’s a source of creative ideas. They want to inspire, use your hands and to discover the lovely world of DIY.

Pattern: Arm Knit Infinity Scarf by Simply Maggie
Needles: my arms
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Creation (70% Mohair, 30% silk), in grey, 10m

In the spring kit 2014 was this yarn. It’s a bulky weight yarn and it’s knitted to a tube. In the Supercraft magazine was the idea to pull it over a coat-hanger. I wanted to do something else with it, though I would never have bought a yarn like this: I’m not a mohair lover. I don’t like fuzzy things.

So, what should I do with this yarn? I researched on Ravelry what other people did with this yarn. Many did a ruffle scarf – but I’m not a ruffle lover. Really. It just doesn’t suit me.

What else can I do? Page for page I checked the projects for this yarn. Until I saw this: a user arm-knitted a cowl with this yarn. That’s it, that’s my project for this yarn!

But, wait. ARM-knitting? Holy cow, what’s that?! So you knit with arms? Yes, your needles are your arms. And while knitting your arms are tangled in yarns, it’s perfect for someone who wants to tickle you…

The pattern designer made a wonderful video, that shows you every step of arm-knitting.

I started with a provisional cast on with a different yarn and in a different yarn-weight. I did because I wanted to join the scarf into a cowl and with a provisional cast on it would look nicer as there wouldn’t be a seam. But this didn’t work. After a few attempts I surrendered. I did a long-tail cast-on with the yarn as the video shows and arm-knitted a few rows until the yarn was finished.

With arm-knitting you always knit with the right side facing you. When you knit a piece with needles, you have to turn your work. You can’t turn your arms :-) so you need to take care how your loops are worked.