Cowls…lots of cowls

This little package definitely caught my eye at one of my local yarn shops, Skeins on Main in Rochester, Michigan. It’s a great shop. But more important, for present purposes, this was a fun kit to knit up. There was plenty of yarn, in all the colorways. The yarn is Stonehedge Fiber’s Shepherd’s Wool worsted. It’s a “pure Michigan” product, in next-to-the-skin soft merino.

I had 63 grams left, which I calculate as about 135 yards. The pattern is “Yipes Stripes Cowl” by Ann Weaver. My kit didn’t tell me what color to use where in the pattern. It looked to me, though, that the yardage for each color was the same. I used: A=wine, B=white, C=black, D=pink, and E=gray.

The pattern’s directions for the Latvian braid are excellent. I hadn’t done the braid in a month of Sundays, but I didn’t even need to consult a video. One hint? Try to work the 2nd row of each braid without untangling the yarns, because the 3rd row is worked with an opposite twist, which untwists the yarns as you work. There’s one 3-color Latvian Braid, in a prominent mid-cowl placement.

Blocked lightly, this is a 12.5 inches square cowl. Here’s a closer look.

Next up is Callowhill Cowl, by Erika Flory. It’s available here and seems to be an exclusive to Craftsy.

Craftsy is kitting the pattern with Cloudborn Superwash Merino DK. I’ve not knit with it before this. In fact, I never heard of the yarn before seeing it on Craftsy at such a low price that it was an offer I could not refuse. At the moment, the pattern and the yarn sell as a kit for $11.70. $11.70? How does that happen?

I can’t given the yarn a rave review. But, I didn’t encounter knots. There was an occasional bit of fuzz that clung to the yarn. But it picked off easily and didn’t compromise the integrity of the yarn. And, good golly, Miss Molly, they are practically giving this yarn away! My colorway is Ocean.

This is a small circumference cowl. Be sure to use a very stretchy bind-off. I used Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off and that turned out to be an excellent choice. If you haven’t used JSSBO before, Cat Borhi’s “how to” video is excellent.

This next one is a super-easy, knit-while-you-chat cowl: Melissa Sibley’s Grinchy Cowl.

Again, this is Stonehedge Fiber’s Shepherd’s Wool Worsted. The only modifications I made were that I cast on 120 instead of 110 stitches and knit one extra repeat of the 15-round section, to give the cowl some extra height.

If I make this again, I will end the slip stitch sections (yes, there is a tad more to this pattern than first meets the eye) after a knit row. I think that will decrease the bit of bunchiness on the underside of the purl row sections.

An extremely simple cowl to knit. And there’s something to be said for that, for sure.

4 thoughts on “Cowls…lots of cowls

  1. All the cowls are lovely. But, I must admit, I absolutely love the Yipes Stripes Cowl! As usual, you’ve done a bang-up job on all of them!

  2. @harriet…Thanks so much. Yipes Stripes is a big fav of mine–so I’ve kept it for me!

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