I recently made a small baby blanket for a friend using four different colors of Quince & Co's Chickadee. I am intimidated by blankets and don't really get excited about them, so this one turned out a bit small, more of a big lovey blanket. And so what to do with the remaining yarn? I used Chickadee previously to make a yellow capelet/wrap for myself and I really like how it drapes when knitted on size 8 needles. Do I really need another capelet? Well yes, I do. I have been wearing the yellow one inside the house now for about 2 months straight. It is perfect because it is a warm layer (in my rather chilly house), yet it keeps my arms free when cooking and cleaning. However, it does not cover my neck, which is almost always cold. So I thought I would try a mock turtleneck version. I could not find a pattern that I liked that used this amount of yarn (I did not want to buy more, just use up what I had), so I just went for it and made up my own. With a lot of luck, it turned out almost perfect.
I wanted a little structure for the neck so that it stood up a bit, so I added the ridged rows to the stockinette stitch. The second tier was simple knitting with evenly spaced yarn overs to increase. I just kept guessing on the placement and luckily it turned into a nice pattern. Then I thought that I would try an easy lace pattern that would make it drape nicely. This is a branching lace pattern, shown upside down from the pattern that I followed. I actually enjoyed the lace pattern, though I made sure not to lose my place! The bright striped pattern is not my usual style, but I am happy with the end result. It was more of a project piece; using my knitting skills to see what I could do.
(The colors are Shell, Petal, Clay, and Pomegranate.)