POIDH, right? Fine.

As they say on Facebook and “the Twitter,” POIDH**. Okay, okay, if you need proof that I did indeed finish a red feather-and-fan cowl, I have the pictures. And I’m gonna share them now.

I’d have taken and posted them sooner, and indeed snapped a couple of the cowl after I wetblocked it. Here’s one of them:

It's red, not pink, no matter what you see here. Promise.

You have no doubt noted a lack of blocking wires or pins, etc. That’s ’cause I used a gentle “pat into desired shape and size” blocking, which nonetheless took the length from 27 inches (pre-blocking) to 31 inches (above). And at 7 inches wide, it’s already the right size there.

The towel and cowl are lying on our café-style dining table, one the kitties stay off of, but I moved them before I went to work last Thursday night, so the Hubs and the BC15 would have a place to sit and eat. Yep, I moved them to an 8-foot folding work table that has taken up residence in our tiny living room and is the current resting place of my sewing machine. It’s a big table, with plenty of room for the cowl to finish drying. “What a terrific idea,” I thought, as I set out blithely for work.

Here’s what the towel looked like 12 hours later, when I got home from work:

Holy shedding, Batman! (Or, more accurately, Catman.)

I had already snatched up the cowl, folded-over and creased by some villainous kitty who sat on it until it dried that way. In fact, before I calmed down enough to take that picture, I had rewet the creased part and laid it out to dry, far from the reach of any of the cats. I had also worked a couple of pulled threads (yes, snags!) back into the knitting and used an adhesive roller to get the not-shockingly whitish cat fur off it. (And yes, there may have been unamused cursing on my part, but I think you’ll agree it just might have been called for.)

A few minutes after I took the towel pictures, the not-so-big mystery of which kitty had polluted embellished the cowl was solved. To wit:

"Who are you going to believe: me or your lying eyes?

On Saturday morning, the cowl was finally dry and uncreased and ready for photos, so I took a few.

The cowl is designed to be wearable two ways, depending on the wearer’s sartorial choice and needs.

Here’s the “fits closer to the neck and tucks neatly into the coat collar” way to wear it:

See? It's red.

I had a shot of this view taken with the flash on, but I like how the natural light/shadows here show off the texture of the feather-and-fan stitch pattern. And it’s so dramatic like this, doncha think?

Here’s a shot of the cowl styled as a continuous loop:

With flash enabled. Not so dramatic, but still quite nice, yes?

And my inner artsy-fartsy photographer insisted on a shot without flash, and here’s the best of them:

Ah, shadows, how I love your effect!

The buttons were a real find. I went to the Evil Empire*** to check their very limited selection, as they are open 24/7 and my LYS is usually closed when I’m up and able to shop. I had little hope of finding anything acceptable, but I lucked out. (Gotta give cred to the Hubs for spotting these. And at 3 buttons to a card, each card costing $2.97, the buttons were almost a steal!)

Wanna see a closeup of the buttons? Sure you do!

A little bling for the MIL!

Check out my FO listing for details, such as they are. I didn’t take notes, not thorough ones, so YMMV**** if you try to follow my “instructions/notes” there.

I know some of you have been hoping I’d get off my duff and block the Aeolian shawl already, but I’m not at all eager to find it covered in cat hair, ya know? Gotta find some alternative way/place to block it, or the results might be another messed-up FO… or a dead kitty.*****

—

** POIDH = pictures or it didn’t happen

*** Wal-mart (shudder)

**** YMMV = your mileage may vary

***** Nah, I’d never hurt my purry furries. I loves my kitty babies!