A Very Cowl-ly Christmas

I've been busy knitting cowls lately for Christmas presents. I like wearing cowls myself a lot better than scarves. You don't have those long ends hanging out, plus cowls just seem more cozy in general. I made my daughter the ever popular Gap-tastic cowl last year out of Lion Brand Thick and Quick. Normally, I don't like knitting with super-bulky yarn, but the younger crowd certainly seems to like wearing items made with it. My daughter loved her cowl and wanted me to make more. This year, cowls are on the top of my gift-giving list. Here are some that I've made so far.

This is the Savannah cowl also knitted with Lion Brand Thick and Quick. It's a fun, fast knit and turned out pretty cute.

This is a cowl I designed using, you guessed it, Lion Brand Thick and Quick. I sewed on a bunch of random buttons from my collection and added some crochet flowers that are attached with the buttons. The cowl can be worn with or without the flowers. I will post the pattern for it.

This is a simple ribbed cowl that I knitted using two strands of the sort weight alpaca I bought at the Fiber Expo I recently blogged about. I like it, but wished I had cast on more stitches to make it longer. I cast on 220 stitches and thought that would be more than sufficient but I forget how much ribbing makes a piece contract.

This is another fun, fast knit called Yang, a free pattern on Ravelry from one of my favorite designers, Stephen West. My favorite color is the blue but I didn't realize it would be obscured when folded over! Here's what it looks like unfolded.

I used yarn from my stash to make  Yellow Brick Road and found some great celtic knot buttons from Jo-Ann's.

And finally, I dug around in my stash and found some Classic Elite Renaissance yarn, a worsted weight wool that has some interesting heather-ness to it. I designed the cowl using a bobble rib and eyelet holes that I cinched with 2 yards of hannah silk ribbon I ordered from Etsy.

Bobble Rib Cowl

Materials:
220 yards worsted weight yarn
size US 7 needles
2 yards ribbon
2 markers


Gauge:
 4.5 sts per inch
Cowl measures 21" in circumference and 10.5" high.
Cowl is worked flat in rows and tied in the round with ribbon.

Pattern notes:
To form a nice selvedge stitch, slip the first stitch of every row with yarn in front. Move yarn to back to continue knitting. Use markers to separate the first 4 and last 4 stitches of every row, which are worked in garter st and where the eyelets will be formed on row 3. Bobble rib pattern is worked in a multiple 8 + 3.



Cast on 131 sts. Knit 2 rows. Work bobble rib pattern as follows:

Row1: k 4, place marker, *k 3, p 2, make bobble (p1, k1, p1, k1) into next st, take the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sts over the first st, p 2, * k 3, place marker, k 4


Row 2: k 4, p 3, *k 2, p 1, k 2, p 3,* k 4


Row 3: k 2, yo, k 2 tog, *k 3, p 5,* k 3, sl marker, k1, yo, k 2 tog, k1


Row 4: as row 2


Repeat these 4 rows until cowl measures 9". Then work 1.5 " in straight garter stitch. Weave in yarn ends and work ribbon through eyelet holes.