Cowls

I have gotten requests from members of my family to knit them cowls, which are actually ideal projects to work on while waiting in my car. My husband wanted one looking more like a loose turtleneck that he could wear during work calls. (It gets cold in our house, when one is sitting in front of a computer all day.) I chose the Royal Oak Cowl pattern, which was written by Sarah Kenyon, and used Patons Kroy Socks yarn in the color Gentry Grey with 3mm knitting needles. The cowl is designed for a worsted-weight yarn with a circumference of 30". I had to add a few extra stitches to the double seed stitch sections to get a 19" circumference with my fingering-weight yarn. Since I was making the cowl much narrower than written, I just had to remember to keep the cast-on and bind-off edges very stretchy. The cowl turned out exactly as my husband envisioned it and he has been wearing it non-stop.

The next cowl I designed for the ball of Yarn Bee Chloe (in Arctic Spruce shade) I found on the bottom of my stash. It is a worsted-weight yarn containing 70% wool and 30% viscose that feels very light and soft. Because I wanted to showcase the green and blue stripes, I decided to knit it in stockinette stitch adding just a subtle texture. The main part of the cowl is knitted in a diamond-shaped slipped stitch pattern, which I really liked on my Cloudy Day Socks. The edges are folded hems with 2 holes and an i-cord string in the top one. I like how one end of the i-cord ended up green and other blue.

My daughter wanted a cowl without any texture, so I made her one in simple stockinette stitch and 2x2 ribbing. I used the sock yarn Stylecraft Head Over Heels Boho in the shade of Orinoco. The colors of this cowl really suit her.