Pattern	Knotts View by Janne Kleivset for Fibre Co.
Dates	25th April – 6th May 2021
Materials	Handspun Spin City art batts Idlewild – 84g ‘Pink Unicorn’ – 106g 5.5mm hook
Size	N/A
Rating	Pattern: 5/5 Finished item: 3/5

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A crochet project! A handspun project! I’m finally getting to the point where my random single skeins of handspun are piling up and I feel like I need to match them up with projects. Aside from the granny square cushion I made with the mini skeins of bright coloured first handspun and other leftovers, this is the first ‘proper’ project, and more or less with the next oldest remaining handspun.

These were both from Spin City fibre club batts, so I don’t have much information about fibre content other than there was all sorts in both and I think it would qualify as ‘art yarn’. The blue came with a name, Idlewild, but the pink didn’t. I ended up calling that Pink Unicorn as that’s just what the finished yarn evoked, although while making this cowl I thought a little bit more of a carnival.

I picked a crochet project because I spun the yarn with S singles and Z ply direction, which is traditionally more suited to crochet than knitting because of the way the motion of forming stitches adds or releases twist. At least, that was the plan – except after finishing this I realised Idlewild was not the yarn I was meant to use, but instead another blue Spin City blend I’d spun….

So this is actually crocheted with one Z-twist and one S-twist yarn, but in the end I don’t think it’s had any negative effect and I think these two naturally paired better together – and that’s probably why I grabbed the wrong one when starting the project.

I didn’t bother at all with a gauge swatch, I chained fewer stitches than the pattern called for but instead stopped when it felt like the right circumference. Similarly I kept going for a few rounds more than the pattern suggests as I wanted as few leftovers as possible. My yarn was also a bit heavier (at least in places) than the called for weight. Consequently this is quite tall and most likely I’ll wear it doubled over.

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