Sanity Knitting

Every Christmas and New Year, I try to set myself up with a project that doesn't take a lot of concentration.
This is my 'Sanity Knitting'... easy enough to follow, so I can lose myself in in the process without making an endless array of mistakes, but that is also interesting enough not to bore me.
This year it was a handspun cowl, from a pattern called 'Octopus' by Katya Gorbacheva 
I stumbled across it on a meandering Ravelry stroll through marine inspired patterns, and I fell in love with it immediately.

I was already spinning a 3ply gradient, consisting of some yummy Oatmeal BFL bought from fellow dyer and total greenius, Freyalyn.
The third ply was some 50/50 merino silk I got online somewhere.
I split the gradient *very* carefully down the middle, lengthways, and then split it into manageable sections... and started spinning. The quality of the fibre and the beautiful colours just jumped onto the wheel... it was a complete joy from beginning to end :) 
The pattern is mainly garter stitch, with a row of yarn overs thrown in, and it made for a very tactile fabric... just really perfect for a gradient :)

I knew I wouldn't have enough yarn to make a long scarf, as the pattern suggests, so I used a provisional cast on and then when I reached an appropriate point in the pattern, along with enough yarn... I just grafted the two ends together, making a cowl.
The 'tentacles' were fun to do, and I added a couple of modifications of my own to them... 
On every other tentacle I used a picot cast on, and when the section was finished, I did a picot cast off... also added an octopus charm too (only on one edge).
It gives the impression of a little Octopus nestling in seaweed :)

It knitted up very quickly, and it definitely got me through the holiday *noise* successfully :)