Daddy Needs a Brand New Cowl

It has been revealed to me this morning that my husband is in dire need of a cowl. Being a grape grower/winemaker, he spends his winters happily stooping from his height of over 6 feet to delicately trim the branches of his significantly shorter grape vines. This process is much more complicated than merely hacking away at the plant, so he spends hours and hours in the fierce wind each year to accomplish this task. This morning, he set out on his merry way, wearing, on his head, a polar fleece vest than no longer fits our 1-year-old and, around his neck, my "Windy City" scarf made of Manos del Uruguay yarn. Sure, it'll keep him warm, but what will the neighbors think? He has apparently misplaced both of his hats (neither of which I made - Whew! That's a relief.). This cannot continue! We must do something to keep this man from looking ridiculous.

So, here are my thoughts of how to remedy the situation. "Take pictures" is my absolute first thought. After all, we must document his silliness. Then of course, "knit something," is always the first solution that comes to mind, though, dear ole hubbie originally said polar fleece would be nice. So, anyway, I'm thinking a cowl would be a good addition to his trimming wardrobe. And, more specifically, two pattern ideas come to mind. One, simpler, but undoubtedly sillier than the other: a mohawk cowl - black or some other dark color with a strip of some bright fuzzy yarn down the middle (a Bozo the Clown Cowl would be another fun variation!). The other idea, though more subtle, would be more complicated for me because it would entail doing some cables, which I've been dying to learn, is a "cornrow cowl". It would consist of sort of ribbed cables, resembling braids, going down from forehead to neck. Great way to have braids without having the long hair or sitting for days in a hair salon to get them (a fun, feminine variation on this would be to make just a braided hat - somewhat like the idea behind Action Hero's Hallowig - and add beads). I think this could be fun, and I may just make both cowls to see which one he's brave enough to wear (the mohawk cowl has the added bonus of making him more visible from the house).

I'm just full of future project ideas these days, but there's never enough time in a day to get everything I need to do done AND knit. So, I chose to just knit and forget about the other stuff.