What do math and plovers have in common? Not much, I imagine, except that they're what's going on in my world right now! (You'll find the plovers in the bird update at the bottom of this email, of course.)

So I've spent most of this past week lost deep in the darkest depths of design math. (Which is why it's somehow Friday instead of Thursday, like when I usually write to you!)

Some of what I've been working on I can share with you, but some of it is secret! Shhhh...

I'm working on a project for a magazine and they generally want me to stay pretty hush hush about it all.

The other thing, though, is a spin off from a cowl design I recently shared over on Patreon. It's a fun little two color textured thing with stripes masquerading as colorwork thanks to the post stitches. Here's a picture:

I've also been in this class for the past couple weeks with Julie Robinson, Design Lab she calls it, and we've been doing some deep dives into sweater design, focusing on three different sweater constructions: drop shoulder, raglan, and circular yoke.

And so I started noodling on how I might be able to turn this cowl design into a yoke sweater.

I've turned cowls into hats before (and vice versa), so that seemed like a good place to start. Plus it's smaller than starting a full sized sweater!

Eventually I worked out the increases to create a flat circle that grows to the same stitch pattern as the cowl. Buuuut, it wasn't quite the right size. It was more like baby hat sized.

Which was cute!

But I knew I'd need to work out a way to increase more for a sweater anyway.

So I sorted that out, doubling the wheel spokes, if you will. But that took several more rounds, which made the hat too BIG!

Ho hum. So I frogged it back down to the baby size and started mathing again.

I still think it will work for a sweater. But I'm nervous about the sizing. I've got a little more wiggle room, I hope, by working with a larger circumference that won't need to be a flat circle, but I really have to watch out for ruffling with this one because there are a LOT of increases on the increase rounds to keep the stitch counts correct throughout the stitch sequence.

It's all been quite the brain bender!

But I like the challenge of it. The design part anyway. The sizing part drives me batty.

So wish me luck!

I'm going to keep working on the beanie version, and I'm hoping to start swatching with some other stash yarn for a sweater this weekend. But I'm not holding my breath for either one of them to grow up into published patterns!

But at least I have a pretty little cowl out of this whole adventure.

You can access the pattern preview over on Patreon, where you can join me for as little as $2 a month and get early access to design experiments like this one or just to help support me if you enjoy following along with my creative journey!

And, you know, the hat pattern might end up on there, too. This first version of it, anyway.

All right, I better get back to it. Actually, I need to work on that secret project some more first!

Hmm, maybe I'll reach out to them and see if maybe I can share a little bit about it with you... I'll let you know what they say!

In the meantime, happy crocheting, my friends!

-Connie

P.S. Have you ever made a yoke sweater? Any and all advice is welcome!! I don't even own one. (Time to fix that, eh?)

P.P.S. No chicken updates for you this week. Harold is still running around with one lonely tail-feather and Lil Gideon still hasn't figured out how to fly over the fence into our backyard so I can get a good picture of him, BUT the exciting bird news around town is that the Kolea are back!

The Pacific Golden Plover summers in Alaska, making the 3,000 mile flight in just three or four days. They're pretty incredible! And they're also quite handsome, though that's hard to tell from the one on the roof, there.

It's right before they take flight in late spring that they really get dressed up with their little tuxedo feathers for courting! I'm looking forward to seeing them toddling around on their little stilt legs for the coming months!! Here's a picture of one rather dapper looking fellow that I took back in April: