I am a sucker for rainbows. One of our bedroom windows faces east and is covered in prisms so when I pull the shade up in the morning, the room is bathed in color. I have a lot of rainbow socks, self-striping rainbow yarn, and when my son asked for a rainbow cowl for the fall, I was happy to indulge him. The internet tells us, "A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the sun." Science aside, I love seeing color in the sky after a good rain, a wobbly chalk rainbow drawn on our driveway by my son, kids with their faces painted in the full spectrum at festivals, and walls of rainbow yarn at my LYS.
I've been working a lot with Freia Fibers yarns lately. I love the slow change of the colors in the ombré and the addictive nature of knitting until the next color appears on the needles, making me work just one more round, then maybe another round, and just let me knit through one more... You get the idea. We all do it! One of Freia's ombré colorways, Dirty Hippie, runs through the full spectrum and I've been wanting to pair it with a solid for a while in a simple Fair Isle cowl.
Introducing Ziggy Stardust, an easy colorwork aran weight cowl designed to show off your inner glam rocker! Paired with a neutral semi-solid, I love how the single ply provides such perfect stitch definition and creates a thicker, more plush knitted fabric. This was one of those designs that flew off the needles, each new color making me more and more happy. Let the rainbow do the work!
And why "Ziggy Stardust?" Wikipedia tells us, "David Bowie's alter ego Ziggy Stardust is a fictional rock star who acts as a messenger for extraterrestrial beings. Bowie created Ziggy Stardust while in New York City promoting Hunky Dory, and performed as him on the Ziggy Stardust Tour through the United Kingdom, Japan and North America. The album, and the character of Ziggy Stardust, was known for its glam rock influences... Considered Bowie's breakthrough album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars peaked at number 5 on the UK Albums Chart and number 75 in the US Billboard 200 chart, and has sold 7.5 million copies worldwide, as of January 2016. Upon release, the album received widespread critical acclaim and has been considered one of the greatest albums of all time, being deemed 'culturally, historically, or artistically significant' by the Library of Congress.
Flanked by colorful corrugated ribbing and knitting up on US 8 circular needles, this is an intuitive design, making it perfect for "bystander knitting" - the kind of knitting we do while waiting in a waiting room, waiting for school to get out, waiting for the movie to start, you get the idea. Easy and quick is the name of the game with these recent patterns and this is the latest from the same vein.
Download the Ziggy Stardust cowl here and rock on!